OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the stock failure and substitutions of drugs in community pharmacies. DESIGN: A descriptive cross-sectional study. SETTING: Community pharmacies in Madrid. PARTICIPANTS: Nine pharmacies which voluntarily accepted to work in this study. The data were collected during four months in a year. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The total stock failure was 1.72%. New pharmaceuticals correspond with 10.73% of all stock failure. The pharmacists substituted the 31.04% of the total stock failure. Antibiotics and chemotherapeutics were the drugs most substituted with 46.98% of all substitutions. Patients accepted to substitute 78.39% of the proposals of the pharmacists. CONCLUSIONS: High percentage of the stock failure belongs to new brand pharmaceuticals. In this study there were few substitutions (0.53%) of the total dispensings. The drugs most substituted were antibiotics and chemotherapeutics. Substitutions depend on pharmacists' wishes and on patients' approval.
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the stock failure and substitutions of drugs in community pharmacies. DESIGN: A descriptive cross-sectional study. SETTING: Community pharmacies in Madrid. PARTICIPANTS: Nine pharmacies which voluntarily accepted to work in this study. The data were collected during four months in a year. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The total stock failure was 1.72%. New pharmaceuticals correspond with 10.73% of all stock failure. The pharmacists substituted the 31.04% of the total stock failure. Antibiotics and chemotherapeutics were the drugs most substituted with 46.98% of all substitutions. Patients accepted to substitute 78.39% of the proposals of the pharmacists. CONCLUSIONS: High percentage of the stock failure belongs to new brand pharmaceuticals. In this study there were few substitutions (0.53%) of the total dispensings. The drugs most substituted were antibiotics and chemotherapeutics. Substitutions depend on pharmacists' wishes and on patients' approval.