(209) Consumers Perceptions, Expectations & Satisfaction About Patient Care Services Provided by The Community Pharmacist

Publication Number: 883

Background: Pharmaceutical care is the responsible provision of drug therapy to achieve positive clinical outcomes that improves patient’s quality of life. In addition to primary role of dispensing medications, Indian community pharmacists are involved in provision of pharmaceutical care services. However, the main endorsement of these services primarily depends on understanding the end-users’ views about the quality of care provided.

Objectives: To assess the perception, expectation, and satisfaction of consumers of patient care service at community pharmacy

Methods: A cross-sectional survey-based study was conducted among general public for a period of three months. Individuals who visited community pharmacies were explained about the study procedure and enrolled in the study after obtaining written informed consent. A validated questionnaire was used to collect the demographic details and study specific data such as perceptions, expectations and satisfaction related to patient care services provided by the community pharmacists. The questionnaire contained thirty-two items for which respondents need to score based on a five-point Likert scale. Descriptive statistics was used to present the responses.

Results: A Total of 126 general publics was participated in the study, majority of them were male (81,64.28%) and mean age of the respondents was 48.07 ± 11.15 years. The majority of the participants belong to the age group of 46-60 years (60, 47.6%), had a bachelor’s degree (54, 42.8%) and monthly income less more than 20000 INR (80, 63.4%). In all nine-item related to community pharmacist perception majority of general publics either strongly agree (two items) or agree (seven items). This indicates a high level of perception among the general publics about community pharmacist professional roles and responsibilities the mean score of 4.0343± 0.812 . Eleven out of fourteen items related the expectations majority of respondents was strongly agreed this indicates high level of expectations with mean score 4.268± 0.682. all nine items related to the satisfaction majority of general publics was satisfied related to the patient care services provided by their pharmacist with mean score 4.1233± 0.752.

Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that overall, there is a high level of perceptions and expectations about community pharmacists’ roles and responsibilities related to provision of patient care services. Though majority of the respondents were completely satisfied. There is a need for active involvement by the community pharmacist in some of the areas of patient care services. It is crucial to identify and overcome the barriers among the community pharmacist to enhance the quality of patient care services better services in the near future.