Understanding Canadian community pharmacists' experiences with virtual care

Study Objectives

The research objective of the survey was to provide an assessment of community pharmacists’ perspectives around current use and potential impact of electronic prescribing and digital health technologies in practice.

This is done by assessing:

  • Current state of adoption and use of electronic systems in pharmacy practice
  • The dispensing workflow of community-based pharmacies
  • Impact of e-prescribing on dispensing efficiencies and productivity
  • Current and anticipated benefits of e-prescribing

Methodology

The population of interest for the survey consisted of all CPhA members. Membership is estimated at approximately 30,000 pharmacists, students, and technicians across Canada. Respondents were recruited via electronic invitations sent through the CPhA to their membership as well as through web promotions. They were invited to complete a bilingual (English and French) user-friendly online questionnaire embedded in the electronic invitation (the survey tool is provided in Appendix B). The survey was launched on April 20, 2022. Fieldwork ended on June 19, 2022.

A monetary incentive was offered to 500 respondents, with the remaining participating without incentivization. Environics Research administered the incentive management and distribution process. No personal identifying information was collected as part of the survey data provided to Infoway. A total of 610 pharmacists across Canada completed the survey. The sample was weighted to reflect the provincial distribution of pharmacies, based on the National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities (NAPRA) National Statistics on Pharmacies (as of January 1, 2022).

Interpretation of Data

Privacy: Note that all sample sizes shown throughout the report are unweighted. Data visualizations do not allow for filtering of data where sample sizes are smaller than 30 respondents to preserve respondent anonymity. Responses from Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut were left unweighted due to low sample size.

Rounding Error: The data presented have been rounded. As a result, totals may differ slightly from 100%