Identifying the needs of community pharmacists to ensure continuity of pharmaceutical care for oncology patients: A qualitative study

INTRODUCTION: Many drugs used in oncology are dispensed by hospital pharmacies, either for outpatients or for administration by injection in hospital. However, the rest of these patients' medication is obtained from a community pharmacy, which rarely has data on hospital treatments. The aim of this study was to identify the needs of community pharmacists to ensure optimal continuity of pharmaceutical care for patients treated with hospital-use anticancer drugs. METHODS: Community pharmacists were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews via videoconference. Participants were recruited voluntarily by phone. Interviews based on an interview guide were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and conducted until theoretical data saturation. The data were analyzed in double-blind using thematic analysis and organized with NVivo® 15 software. RESULTS: The data have been classified into four themes: identification of the oncology patient by the community pharmacist, roles of the community pharmacist in the care of the oncology patient, barriers encountered by the community pharmacist in the care of the oncology patient, and needs of the community pharmacist in the care of the oncology patient. The main barrier encountered was the lack of communication at transition points. Community pharmacists report needing training in oncology treatment and they would like to exchange treatment data between hospitals and community pharmacies via the oncology liaison booklet or via the e-health platform. CONCLUSION: A rapid communication system integrated into the informatics systems of hospitals and community pharmacies needs to be developed so that hospital care providers and community pharmacists can communicate easily with each other.