Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility of implementing a pharmacist-initiated peripheral arterial disease (PAD) screening programme in the community setting and to determine the ability of this screening to increase the number of patients identified with PAD.

Design: Prospective study.

Setting: Three locations of a large pharmacy grocery chain in the Cincinnati and Dayton, OH, USA, area, from 3 Feb 2009 to 31 May 2009.

Patients: 39 patients 50 years or older with a diagnosis of hypertension, dyslipidaemia and/or diabetes.

Intervention: PAD screening, including an assessment of PAD symptoms and an ankle-brachial index (ABI) calculation using a handheld Doppler.  Patients who screened positive were provided with appropriate counselling on possible treatments, medications and lifestyle modifications and referred to their primary care physician for further evaluation.

Main outcome measures: Successful implementation of programme, number of patients referred to their physician for follow-up and number of patients with ABI scores indicating PAD.

Results: 17 of the 39 patients screened (44%) were referred to their physician for follow-up because they had ABI scores indicating PAD, symptoms indicating PAD or noncompressible vessels.  Using ABI scores, PAD was detected in nine patients (23.1%).  Pharmacists implemented the programme successfully.

Conclusions: This study successfully demonstrated the feasibility of implementing a pharmacist-initiated PAD screening programme in the community setting.  The implementation of this screening programme included the acquisition of affordable equipment, training of pharmacists and access to the appropriate patient population.  This study also was effective in increasing the recognition of PAD in patients screened in the community setting.