Canadian Pharmacists Journal - May/June 2019 - 197

Original Research
TaBle 2

Pharmacists' perceptions of the saskatchewan Medication Assessment Program (sMAP)
Strongly
agree

agree

Not sure

Disagree

Strongly
disagree

sMAP improves medication safety, n (%)
N = 214

69 (32.2)

123 (57.5)

14 (6.5)

6 (2.8)

2 (0.9)

sMAP ensures patients are taking most effective
medications, n (%)
N = 214

53 (24.8)

126 (58.9)

23 (10.7)

10 (4.7)

2 (0.9)

sMAP improves patient health outcomes, n (%)
N = 214

48 (22.4)

113 (52.8)

44 (20.6)

7 (3.3)

2 (0.9)

sMAP prevents drug-related problems, n (%)
N = 214

54 (25.2)

136 (63.6)

17 (7.9)

5 (2.3)

2 (0.9)

sMAP prevents emergency department visits,
n (%)
N = 204

16 (7.8)

101 (49.5)

81 (39.7)

5 (2.5)

1 (0.5)

sMAP prevents hospitalizations, n (%)
N = 203

22 (10.8)

112 (55.2)

66 (32.5)

2 (1.0)

1 (0.5)

sMAP reduces medication wastage, n (%)
N = 203

41 (20.2)

130 (64.0)

28 (13.8)

4 (2.0)

0 (0)

sMAP improves medication adherence, n (%)
N = 203

44 (21.7)

108 (53.2)

46 (22.7)

5 (2.5)

0 (0)

sMAP supports seniors to age within their homes,
n (%)
N = 203

38 (18.7)

95 (46.8)

59 (29.1)

11 (5.4)

0 (0)

sMAP assists patients with medication
administration, n (%)
N = 203

77 (37.9)

119 (58.6)

7 (3.4)

0 (0)

0 (0)

Intended purposes of the SMaP

"supporting seniors to age within their homes"
and "preventing hospitalizations," with 57.3%
(n = 117/204), 65.5% (n = 133/203) and 66%
(134/203) strongly agreeing or agreeing with
these statements, respectively.
Pharmacists' experiences with the SMAP
The majority of participants strongly agreed or
agreed that they enjoyed performing medication assessments (84.6%, n = 159/188) and most
strongly agreed or agreed that they were confident
in their ability to identify drug-related problems
(88.3%, n = 172/195, Table 3). Despite this confidence, more than half of participants (67.2%,
n = 131/195) strongly agreed or agreed that they
had trouble identifying drug-related problems
due to a lack of patient history even though
very few (10.2%, n = 20/195) reported that they
always or almost always contact physicians to
C P J / R P C * M ay / J u n e 2 0 1 9 * V O L 1 5 2 , N O 3

request additional patient information (Table 3).
Although participants reported that the majority of patients (78.9%, n = 150/190) always or
almost always agree with their recommendations, it appears that many of these recommendations may not be accepted by physicians, as
only 34.6% (n = 63/182) reported that physicians always or almost always agree with their
recommendations (Table 3).
Barriers and facilitators to providing SMAP
assessments
When participants were asked to rank their top
3 barriers to providing SMAP assessments, from
a list of options that were previously reported in
the literature, the most common barriers selected
were lack of time, difficulty having patients come
to the pharmacy and patients not being eligible
for (government) reimbursement (Figure 1).
197
Canadian Pharmacists Journal - May/June 2019

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