Physicians and community pharmacists collaboration in primary care: A review of specific models

Background: Since 2008, French healthcare reform encourages community pharmacists (CP) to develop collaborative care with other health care providers through new cognitive pharmacy services.

Objectives: This review is aimed to identify theoretical models that have been developed to understand the physician-CP collaboration (PCPC) and to identify the associated determinants.

Methods: English-written abstracts research was conducted on Pubmed/Medline, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, and CINAHL from January 1990 to June 2013. Keywords were based on common terminology of inter-professional relations and community pharmacy.

Results: Of the 1545 single articles identified, the final review was conducted on 16 articles. Four specific models of collaboration centered on PCPC were identified: (i) the Collaborative Working Relationship Model (CWR), (ii) the Conceptual model of GPCP collaboration, (iii) the CP Attitudes towards Collaboration with GPs Model (ATC-P), (iv) the GP Attitudes towards collaboration with CPs (ATC-GP). The analysis of these four PCPC models shows that their respective factors might cover the same concepts, especially for relational and interactional determinants. These key elements are: trust, interdependence, perceptions and expectations about the other HCP, skills, interest for collaborative practice, role definition and communication.

Conclusion: A meta-model for PCPC has been postulated. It can be used for qualitative exploration of PCPC, in a context of implementation of collaborative practice including CPs, in the primary care.