Pharmacy treatments for Lyme disease cut N.S. emergency visits in half: study

The number of Nova Scotians visiting the emergency department for treatment of tick bites dropped by about half after the province gave pharmacists permission in 2021 to assess and provide preventative Lyme disease treatment, a new study has found.

The study, published Monday in the Canadian Pharmacies Journal, showed pharmacists are able to examine a suspected bite and if confirmed to be from a tick that can transmit Lyme disease , prescribe the standard oral treatment called doxycycline to limit the risk of it developing.

Emily Black, lead supervising author of the study and acting director of the College of Pharmacy at Dalhousie University, said it’s a sign of improvements in the system.

“It really shows that people want other options for access for things like tick bites. They really don’t want to be sitting in the emergency department,” she said. “But I also think it suggests or shows that they really value the care that pharmacists can provide and really trust their assessment and ability to do that.”

The study looked at patient cases of tick bites reported at three Nova Scotia emergency departments in the 16 months before and 16 months after the August 2021 change.

Before implementation, there were a total of 617 visits for tick bites. Once pharmacists could assess the bites, the study found 402 people visited an emergency department during a period of 16 months after the change. When compared to the overall emergency department volume in each 16-month period, the study showed the rate of tick-bite visits was cut roughly in half.

By expanding tick treatments to pharmacies, the Pharmacy Association of Nova Scotia says people can get help faster.

“We really don’t want people with minor ailments, things that they categorize in the ER as level four or level five, we don’t want those in the ER, we want them being taken care of in the community,” said Allison Bodnar, CEO of the association.

In the latest quarter, from April to June, Bodnar said pharmacists in the province assessed more than 8,000 tick bites. She stressed it shows how prevalent the issue of tick bites has become in Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotians can typically book a same-day or following day appointment online as opposed to driving to the hospital and waiting hours to be seen. Treatment for tickborne illnesses must be administered within 72 hours to limit the risk of their development.

“Their community pharmacy may be a lot closer for them to their home and a lot easier to access than, say, driving to an emergency department,” Black said. “It gives them more timely accesss as well, where they may not be able to get in to see their primary care provider.”

Pharmacists are becoming a primary source for Lyme disease treatment in Nova Scotia, a separate study showed.

A 2024 study in the Canadian Pharmacists Journal, which Black was also a part of, found pharmacists prescribed 61.3 per cent of all single-dose doxycycline prescriptions following the province giving them prescribing authority.

Even though a high number of people are turning to pharmacists for Lyme disease treatment, Black said more work can still be done.