Caracterización de las farmacias comunitarias de Santa Clara para la implementación de la Dispensación de Medicamentos

introduction: the drug dispensing service as part of the pharmaceutical care is aimed at showing the involvement of the pharmacist in attaining positive results of therapies, based on the pharmaco-therapeutic knowledge and the ethical principles of this profession. the characterization of community pharmacies is important to take actions to implement this service. objectives: to characterize the community pharmacies of santa clara city for implementation of the drug dispensing service there. methods: an observational, descriptive and cross-sectional research study was carried out in health systems and services with a systemic approach (assessment of structure, process and results). the universe of study was the community pharmacies of santa clara city, from january to may, 2010. thirty percent of these pharmacies was selected. results: limited availability of human resources in addition to lack of material resources to keep the service operating. most of the pharmacists at community level (95.2 %) presented learning requirements on dispensing and there were no standardized working methods. the direct observation allows determining that the service was inadequate, which was corroborated in a survey to users. conclusions: the characterization of the community pharmacies in santa clara city yielded that their structure is not fully adequate; and neither the process nor the results are suitable for the implementation of the drug dispensing service.