Pharmaceutical care in a community-based practice setting in Iran: current status and future challenges Gholamhossein Mehralian, Maryam Rangchian, Gita Afsharmanesh and Narges Seifi Department of Pharmacoeconomics and Pharmaceutical Policy, School of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Abstract Objectives This study aimed to evaluate pharmacists’ practice and attitude toward phar- maceutical care (PhC) and present barriers in Iran. Methods A cross-sectional descriptive study, inviting Iranian pharmacists, was conducted using a self-administrated Likert-based questionnaire including demographic, performance, attitude and barrier sections. Questionnaires were distributed and collected by research team. Obtained data were analyzed through descriptive analysis, factor analysis, Friedman test and χ 2 test. Key findings Data on opinions of 986 pharmacists’ working in community pharmacies located in 22 districts of Tehran were obtained. Findings in aspect of PhC implementation showed that the frequency of the appropriate provision of PhC was less than 50% for making contact with physician and medication monitoring. Speaking about attitude, the complete agreement with ‘the practicability of the implementation of PhC’ and ‘the existence of supportive manner among physicians towards pharmacists’ role’ was expressed only by 30.6 and 25.1% of respondents. Finally, according to participants concerns, the main barrier to PhC was highlighted to be ‘patients reluctance in receiving pharmaceutical services’. Conclusions It can be concluded that besides promotion of public awareness about PhC, improvement of pharmacists’ motivation toward these services seems necessary. In addition, further research is needed to explore the causes of non-promising relationship between pharmacists and other health professionals, which, in turn, is critical to find appropriate solutions. Keywords attitude; barriers; community pharmacists; pharmaceutical care Introduction Providing high-quality and safe medical care is the primary goal of a healthcare system. Many patients do not receive the optimum treatment due to drug-related problems (DRPs). [1] As an example, a study published in 2007 about hospital admissions caused by DRPs in Isfahan showed that 92% of 115 examined DRP cases were either preventable or probably preventable. [2] DRPs not only increase the rate of adverse effects but also impose huge expenditures on the society. This happens while community pharmacists can play an effec- tive role in the improvement of patients’ outcomes. [3,4] Pharmaceutical care (PhC), defined as ‘the responsible provision of medication-related care for the purpose of achieving definite outcomes that can improve a patient’s quality of life’, [5] is one of the approaches suggested to improve the level of society health. PhC provides healthcare systems with an opportunity to benefit from pharmacists’ cooperation with patients and other healthcare professionals in designing, implementing and monitoring the process of medication, which a majority of related studies have confirmed its desirable effects on healthcare system outcomes. [6–10] Based on literature, in present study, three components were considered for PhC: data gathering, managing DRPs and monitoring the treatment process. [6–11] Pharmacists are in a position where they can deliver PhC at an acceptable level. [12] The usefulness of pharmacists’ interventions has been previously reported in some studies. For example, a study conducted by Wu et al. showed that periodic telephone counseling by a pharmacist at the midpoint between clinic visits led to significant improvement in patient adherence to the treatment, Correspondence: Gholamhossein Mehralian, School of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, Vali-e Asr Ave., Niayesh Junction, Tehran 1996814534, Iran. E-mail: Gmehralian@gmail.com Research Paper JPHSR 2015, 6: 69–75 © 2015 Royal Pharmaceutical Society Received October 25, 2014 Accepted January 5, 2015 DOI 10.1111/jphs.12089 ISSN 1759-8885 69