SynthesisThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2019
Impact of integrating pharmacists into primary care teams on health systems indicators: a systematic review.
Synthesis in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The effects of community interventions on unplanned healthcare use in patients with multimorbidity: a systematic review.Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2024Pooled it
- The effectiveness and cost of integrating pharmacists within general practice to optimize prescribing and health outcomes in primary care patients with polypharmacy: a systematic review.BMC primary care · 2023Pooled it
- Systematic literature review of pharmacists in general practice in supporting the implementation of shared care agreements in primary care.Systematic reviews · 2022Pooled it
- Characterising pharmacist interventions from person-centred medicines reviews in general practice settings.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2026Article
- Article
- Knowledge, Practice and Barriers of Community Pharmacists Towards Asthma Management: A Cross-Sectional Study in Saudi Arabia.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- The scope of practice of nurses and allied health professionals in primary care in Ontario, Canada: a scoping review.Family practice · 2026Article
- Patients' Perspectives on the Role of General Practice-Based Pharmacists: A Focus Group Study.Patient preference and adherence · 2026Article
- Exploring the experience of managers, employees, and pharmacists in clinical pharmacy in primary care using the SEIPS model: A focus group study.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2025Article
- Developing a Theoretically Informed Strategy to Enhance Pharmacist-Led Deprescribing in Care Homes for Older People.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Point-of-care testing of cardiovascular risk factors in Viennese community pharmacies: A cross-sectional study.Preventive medicine reports · 2025Article
- Implementation of Clinical Pharmacy Services in Primary Health Care: A Scoping Review.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2025Article
- Clinical and economic outcomes of multidisciplinary team members in primary care: a scoping review.BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Bolstering Primary Care and Pharmacy Collaboration as a Solution to Health Care Workforce, Access and Affordability Issues.North Carolina medical journal · 2025Article
- Adoption of clinical pharmacist roles in primary care: longitudinal evidence from English general practice.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Article
- Impact of Clinical Pharmacists on Interdisciplinary Mental Health Teams in a Community Setting: A Retrospective Chart Review.The Canadian journal of hospital pharmacy · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- Improving the provision of clinical pharmacy services in low- and middle-income countries: a qualitative study in tertiary health facilities in Tanzania.BMJ public health · 2025Article
- Climate change and primary care: how to reduce the carbon footprint of your practice.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEvidence suggests that pharmacists integrated into primary care can improve patient outcomes and satisfaction, but their impact on healthcare systems is unclear.
aimTo identify the key impacts of pharmacists' integration into primary care on health system indicators, such as healthcare utilisation and costs. DESIGN AND
settingA systematic review of literature.
methodEmbase, MEDLINE, Scopus, the Health Management Information Consortium, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases were examined, along with reference lists of relevant studies. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies published up until June 2018, which considered health system outcomes of the integration of pharmacists into primary care, were included. The Cochrane risk of bias quality assessment tool was used to assess risk of bias for RCTs; the National Institute of Health National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute quality assessment tool was used for observational studies. Data were extracted from published reports and findings synthesised.
resultsSearches identified 3058 studies, of which 28 met the inclusion criteria. Most included studies were of fair quality. Pharmacists in primary care resulted in reduced use of GP appointments and reduced emergency department (ED) attendance, but increased overall primary care use. There was no impact on hospitalisations, but some evidence of savings in overall health system and medication costs.
conclusionIntegrating pharmacists into primary care may reduce GP workload and ED attendance. However, further higher quality studies are needed, including research to clarify the cost-effectiveness of the intervention and the long-term impact on health system outcomes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.