Pharmacist-led Clinic Alberta First a in

Patients in Lethbridge beneft from a new model of care

By Caitlin Crawshaw

At a walk-in clinic in Lethbridge, the sta in white coats aren’t doctors. Rather, they're pharmacists, trained to provide many of the health services patients traditionally associate with doctors.

e Pharmacist Walk-in Clinic, on the second floor of Lethbridge’s Real Canadian Superstore, is operated by Loblaw Companies Ltd. In partnership with the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Loblaw is undertaking a new model of care. Since the summer, patients have been seeking care from the clinic’s pharmacists, as well as pharmacy students in training.

“Loblaw had approached us about their idea of opening this clinic as a way to improve access to primary care services,” explains the faculty’s interim dean, Christine Hughes. “It really aligns with our view of supporting the expansion of pharmacists’ roles and pharmacists using their full scope of practice.”

At a time when many Albertans don’t have family doctors — including 33,000 people in Lethbridge alone — the clinic represents a model of care with the potential to meet the health-care needs of patients and decrease emergency room visits.

“It’s not meant to replace physicians or emergency care,” she says. “But there are a number of services that pharmacists can provide that a lot of people don’t know about. And when there are physician shortages, it just adds to the capacity of the overall health system for pharmacists to use their full scope.”

Many of these services have been available to pharmacists since legislation changes in 2007, but Hughes says it’s taken some time for the profession to “create the space, time and competencies of pharmacists to o er them in their practice.” e clinic o ers an opportunity for students to experience the profession’s full scope of practice, as well as plenty of hands-on experience with patient care assessments.

A $500,000 gi from Loblaw will support the training of students at the clinic and on-site research into clinic operations. “We’re planning to take data collected within the first six months of full operation and look at things like the characteristics of people coming through the door, the conditions being managed, what referrals are being made, and those sorts of things,” says Scot Simpson, a Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences professor leading the assessment. “We’ll characterize what pharmacists are doing to answer the question, ‘What care do pharmacists provide in this se ing?’ and compare it with a template of what pharmacists could be providing.”

Ultimately, the research will identify where the clinic might enhance or expand the services o ered by its pharmacists. And this research could help inform pharmacy practices elsewhere in the province, too. Simpson, who holds a chair in patient health management, explains that a er determining gaps, the assessment will analyze the reasons why patients aren’t accessing certain services. “Is it because the patients don’t know what the pharmacists can provide or are there internal or policy issues preventing pharmacists from o ering services?” e research might reveal other, more surprising reasons, too.

Alberta was the obvious choice for the research to take place, according to Je Leger, head of pharmacy at Loblaw Companies, and President of Shoppers Drug Mart. “Pharmacists in Alberta are uniquely positioned to relieve some of the burden on the province’s health-care system,” he said in a news release when the clinic opened, “and this innovative clinic will make access to care easier for residents in Lethbridge.”

Simpson agrees. He says that, at a time when the health-care system is overtaxed, it’s more important than ever for pharmacists to use their full scope of practice. He adds, “ is clinic is one way to try to o er those services more broadly.” MP

PHOTO BY TARWINDER RAI