Introducing a Health Promoting Pharmacy Model: Safe Pharmacy Program of Seoul

Abstract

Pharmacies, in partnership with public health centers for community health promotion, have excep- tional geographical, temporal, and psychological accessibility. This study aims to introduce important aspects of the “Safe Pharmacy Program” conducted by the city of Seoul as a public-private partnership enabling participation of pharmacies for community health promotion. The program ran from March of 2013 through December of 2013; 48 pharmacies from four districts, serving 3,907 citizens. Services offered by the “Safe Pharmacy Program” included counseling services for smoking cessation and sui- cide prevention as well as medication history management. This paper also discusses the social back- ground of the involvement of community pharmacies as health promotion providers and its benefits and limitations. In the future, evaluation studies are needed to verify the effectiveness and practicality of the “Seoul Pharmacy Program” and therefore develop it into a better model capable of extended ap- plication