Pharmacist-led clinics improve access to health care: Lessons from Alberta
09 Mayo 2024 - 7:04AM
Emulating Alberta’s pharmacist-led clinic model could enhance
access to primary care and help avoid unnecessary emergency room
visits, according to a new study from the Montreal Economic
Institute.
“Pharmacists know medication better than anyone else in our
health systems,” explains Krystle Wittevrongel, senior public
policy analyst and Alberta project lead at the MEI. “By unlocking
their full potential in prescribing and substituting medications,
Alberta’s pharmacist-led clinics have helped avoid tens of
thousands of unnecessary emergency room visits.”
Pharmacists in Alberta have the largest prescribing authority in
the country, including the ability to prescribe schedule one drugs
with special training.
Unlike in Ontario and Manitoba, Alberta pharmacists are
authorized to substitute prescribed medications, which can help
address issues such as adverse reactions caused by interaction with
other treatments.
The study explains that this can help reduce pressure on
hospitals, as prescription-related issues account for more than 10
per cent of emergency room visits.
Alberta’s first pharmacist-led clinic, in Lethbridge, sees
between 14,600 and 21,900 patients per year since opening in
2022.
It is expected that there will be 103 such clinics active in the
province by the end of 2024.
The researcher also links the success of the pharmacist-led
clinic model in Alberta to pharmacists' expanded scope of practice
in the province.
Among other things, Alberta pharmacists are able to order and
interpret lab tests, unlike their counterparts in British Columbia,
Ontario, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
A 2019 peer-reviewed study found that pharmacists could handle
35 per cent of avoidable emergency room visits in Canada.
“By enabling pharmacists to play a larger role in its health
system, Alberta is redirecting minor cases from emergency rooms to
more appropriate facilities,” said Wittevrongel. “Just imagine how
much faster things could be if pharmacists could take care of 35
per cent of the unnecessary load placed on Canada’s emergency
rooms.”
The MEI study is available here:
https://www.iedm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/lepoint062024_en.pdf.
The MEI is an independent public policy think tank with offices
in Montreal and Calgary. Through its publications, media
appearances, and advisory services to policy-makers, the MEI
stimulates public policy debate and reforms based on sound
economics and entrepreneurship.
Interview requestsRenaud BrossardVice
President, CommunicationsCell: 514
743-2883rbrossard@iedm.org@renaudbrossard
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