OBJECTIVES: Health care has recently witnessed many changes aimed at improving health outcomes with pharmacists taking a bigger role in patient care. In order to provide the best improvement strategy, the barriers that affect pharmacists must be identified. The purpose of this study was to systematically review and evaluate the literature regarding the perceived barriers of pharmacists when providing care.  METHODS: The electronic databases, PubMed and the International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, were searched for articles published in English between 1995 and 2015. The electronic database, Embase, is currently being reviewed using the same specifications.  Titles and abstracts were screened according to the inclusion criteria by one researcher. Keywords included pharmacist, barrier, limitation, impediment, inhibit, challenge, providing, provision, delivery, care, service, survey, questionnaire, attitude, perception, opinion and view. The articles that met the inclusion criteria were then audited by a second researcher. RESULTS: From 530 articles, 31 articles were included once duplicates were removed.  Patient care services included, but were not limited to, immunizations, medication management therapy services, hospital discharge counseling, and chronic disease education.  23 articles addressed services and barriers in the community setting. Eight articles were from the hospital setting.  The primary barrier identified was lack of time (65%).  This was consistent with both the community and hospital settings.  Secondary barriers included lack of reimbursement (55%), lack of training/knowledge (32%), lack of staff (26%), lack of space (26%), and inability to obtain complete medical information on patients (13%).  CONCLUSIONS: This review has identified several key barriers that affect the delivery of care from pharmacists.  Further research that identifies barriers with specifically paired interventions may ultimately improve pharmacist provided patient care and improve health outcomes.