A National Survey on the Prevalence and Impact of Multiple Pharmacy Use in Specialty Pharmacy

Not Applicable

• Conditions: Health Services Accessibility
• Interventions: Other: Survey

• Registration Number: NCT05035225
• Lead Sponsor: Johns Hopkins University

Brief Summary

Specialty medications often have dispensing restrictions which can be dictated by manufacturer limited distribution strategies, narrow insurance networks, or a combination of both. Unfortunately, this may result in patients being required to use 2 or more pharmacies to fill their prescription medications; this is referred to as multiple pharmacy use (MPU). The investigators' plan is to administer a survey to patients who have been prescribed one or more specialty medications to evaluate the prevalence of MPU in this population as well as to investigate patients' attitudes about MPU and potential factors increasing the likelihood of MPU

Detailed Description

The investigators will identify patients from participating member sites via a review of prescribing records for specific specialty medications. Patients will be contacted via telephone to explain the purpose and risk of the study. Consented patients will then be asked a series of 11 questions about their attitudes and experience with taking and obtaining their specialty medication(s). Additional demographic and clinical information about patients will be collected via chart review.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2021-08-26
• Study First Submitted QC: 2021-09-01
• Study First Posted: 2021-09-05
• Study Start: 2023-07-31
• Status Verified: 2024-12
• Last Update Submitted: 2024-12-09
• Last Update Posted: 2024-12-11
• Primary Completion: 2025-01-31
• Study Completion: 2025-02-28

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: ENROLLING_BY_INVITATION
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 800

Inclusion Criteria

• Subjects 18 years of age or older
• English-speakers
• An active patient of a performance institution and ability to provide informed consent to participate with the survey
• Electronically prescribed at least one specialty medication by a performance site provider, which can be either a new or renewed order, within the last 3 months

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Exclusion Criteria

• Subjects less than 18 years of age
• Non-English speakers
• Patients that cannot or are unwilling to provide consent
• Patients who have not had a new or renewed specialty medication prescription order placed electronically within the last 3 months

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Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: SINGLE_GROUP

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Specialty Pharmacy Patient	Survey	Patients who have been prescribed at least one selected specialty medication

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Percentage of Patients using Multiple Pharmacies	Within one year of study initiation	Of all patients consented, the percentage of patients using more than one pharmacy to obtain their medications

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Experience with obtaining and administering medications	Within one year of study initiation	Patient response to questions about how easy it is for patients to obtain and administer medication
Self-reported adherence and barriers	Within one year of study initiation	Patient response to questions about having missed doses in the past month
Method of obtaining medications	Within one year of study initiation	Patient response to questions about distance from pharmacy and how prescriptions are primarily obtained

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Johns Hopkins Hospital; 🇺🇸 Baltimore, Maryland, United States