A study published in Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy examined whether incorporating pharmacists with an expanded scope into the community or hospital emergency departments could affect ED volume.
Researchers studied ED case data for hospitals in Ontario, Canada, from 2010 to 2017. In Ontario, pharmacists' scope has slowly expanded, beginning with the addition of services like prescriptions renewal and influenza vaccination in 2012, with more vaccines being added in 2016.
Researchers found almost one-third of non-urgent ED visits in Ontario were for conditions that could potentially be managed by pharmacists with an expanded scope of practice. Over the study period, "pharmacists with an expanded scope could potentially have managed nearly 1.5 million cases in Ontario," said Wasem Alsabbagh, a professor at the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy in Ontario and a study author.
The researchers also found the most frequent ED cases that pharmacists could manage include coughs and ear canal inflammation.