Role of Pharmacists in Delivery of Patient Care Within Legalized Medical Marijuana States With a Defined Role for the Pharmacist

Abstract

Specific Aims #1: Describe and characterize role of the pharmacist and lay employee within medical marijuana dispensary. #2: Describe and differentiate between type and quality of care delivered between both groups. Methods A questionnaire was given over the phone to lay employees and registered pharmacists at specifically identified medical marijuana dispensaries. This questionnaire asked eight demographic data relating to the location and type of practice as well as 27 various yes/no questions relating to the extent of patient counseling and assessment that was done by employees with patients in the dispensary. Main Results No employee from the state of New York nor pharmacist from Arkansas was willing to participate in the study. Of the 27 patient counseling questions, significant difference in response occurred in four questions: 10, 22, 23, 27 (p=0.033, 0.008, 0.002, 0.033, respectively). All of these had more positive pharmacist responses versus lay employees. Questions 22 and 23 were regarding comorbidities and illicit drug use with zero lay employees responding positively and question 10 and 27 related to asking about personal use and formulation respectively. Conclusions Both pharmacists and lay employees provide various forms of assessment ranging from what condition is being treated to and drug-drug interactions. Pharmacists, overall, asked more assessment-type questions as well as more medication specific questions compared to lay employees. This indicates that with a pharmacist employed, there can be an expected base amount of counseling they are comfortable with performing; while with a lay employee, there is a more variability in the comprehensive counseling a patient will receive.