The role of the French community pharmacist in drug dispensing.

Pharmacists are in charge of decreasing the risk of drug related morbidity and then enhance the quality of drug therapy. A survey of the optimization of pharmacotherapy carried out by 37 pharmacists during six weeks. When dispensing drugs, pharmacists have detected drug related problems, such as lack of precision in prescriptions, abnormalities in dosing, interactions, contraindications, adverse drug events or noncompliance. Among 727 reported cases, 45% led to a major change in the prescription after contact with the physician. These results confirm that a close cooperation between physicians and pharmacists is essential for the safety and the efficiency of pharmacotherapy.