Assessing the referral of clients with respiratory symptoms to general physicians: a survey of community pharmacists in Beirut

Objectives The main objective of this study was to assess the ability of community pharmacists practicing in Beirut to identify red flag respiratory symptoms, and therefore to adequately refer clients to a general physician when warranted. Secondary objectives included determining whether demographic factors affect the odds of referral, and to qualify degree of agreement of community pharmacists with a panel of expert physicians. Methods In this cross‐sectional study, pharmacies were randomly selected and invited to complete a self‐administered survey, each containing 10 clinical vignettes that combined different characteristics (age group, gender, presenting symptom, duration of symptoms). Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to inspect predictors of referral, correct referral and under‐referral. Key findings A total of 214 pharmacies were visited and 141 (65.9%) responded. Pharmacists were more likely to refer female patients (P = 0.035) and patients who presented with a longer duration of symptoms (P