Pharmaceutical care program for patients with reactive airways disease.

A pharmaceutical care program for patients with reactive airways disease (RAD) is described. A pharmaceutical care program for patients with RAD was developed and implemented at 36 CVS pharmacies. The impact on patient outcomes, pharmacist job satisfaction, and other variables is currently being evaluated in a controlled trial with more than 1100 patient enrollees. Guiding the program are the beliefs that pharmacists must have clinically relevant, patient-specific data to provide appropriate care; that pharmacists must have adequate training to provide pharmaceutical care; that the program must be sensitive to organizational barriers, particularly time demands; and that there must be ongoing support for the program. The program has five components: (1) computer display of patient-specific data for patients enrolled in the study, (2) distribution of tailored patient education materials, (3) use of a resource guide to facilitate the implementation of pharmaceutical care, (4) strategies to reinforce and facilitate the program, and (5) pharmacist training. While developed for community pharmacies, the program is applicable to most ambulatory care pharmacy practices. A pharmaceutical care program for patients with RAD was developed for use in community pharmacies.