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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Nicole Monastersky, MPH¹, Sharon Cohen Landau, MPH¹, Diana Greene Foster, PhD², and Jeri Bigbee, PhD, RN, FAAN³. (1) Pharmacy Access Partnership, 614 Grand Ave #324, Oakland, CA 94610, (2) University of California, San Francisco, Bixby Center for Reproductive Health Research & Policy, 655 13th Street, Suite 201, Oakland, CA 94602, (510) 836-2128, greened@obgyn.ucsf.edu, (3) Department of Nursing, California State University, Stanislaus, 801 W. Monte Vista Ave., Turlock, CA 95382

California is the only state in which the saturation of emergency contraception (EC) pharmacies has been tracked systematically to ensure pharmacist participation and consumer access. Pharmacy access to EC – by which a woman can get EC directly from a certified pharmacist without an advance prescription from a physician or clinic - is available in California and seven other states (WA, NM, AK, HI, ME, NH, MA). For the past four years, Pharmacy Access Partnership has conducted an annual survey of a random sample of pharmacies in select California counties to evaluate the state's EC Pharmacy Access Program. In addition to the 15 counties surveyed in previous years, an additional 12 counties were included in 2005 to better understand EC pharmacy access in rural and frontier counties. This presentation summarizes the cumulative four-year data analysis and includes a comparison of pharmacies providing EC pharmacy access, ways to outreach to interested but not currently participating EC pharmacists, number of clients served by pharmacy access, reasons pharmacists are/are not participating in this program, and average charge for EC drug and consultation fee. Evaluating the differences and similarities between EC pharmacy access across urban, rural, and frontier geographic areas will be instrumental in targeting future outreach and training opportunities to expand the saturation of EC pharmacy access in California. Pharmacy students who participated in data collection also provided valuable qualitative data on the survey process and feedback from pharmacist respondents.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Identify the areas of the state with highest saturation to EC pharmacy access services.
• List differences between access in rural/frontier and urban areas.
• Prioritize outreach strategies to continue to grow the number of participating EC pharmacies and pharmacists.

Keywords: Contraception, Rural Health Service Providers

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered