CUSTOMERS/PATIENTS’ PERCEPTIONS AND EXPECTATIONS WITH PROFESSIONAL SERVICES IN COMMUNITY PHARMACIES: PILOT STUDY

COSTAMAGNA FM, ESPEJO PJ, LEIGGENER LJ, VEGA EM.

Córdoba, Argentina.

Otro; 1º Reunión Internacional de Ciencias Farmacéuticas.; 2010

Depto de Farmacia. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; Depto de Farmacia, Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad Nacional de Rosario

Introduction Pharmaceutical care is the responsible provision of drug therapy for the purpose of achieving definite outcomes that improve a patient's quality of life. This concept was born in response to the increase of the life`s expectancy, the mayor prevalence of diseases (that goes together with longevity increase) and the growing number of drugs for those pathology’s treatments (among other factors). (1) Pharmaceutical care implies that pharmacists develop cognitive services which are patient-oriented benefits carried out by the professional for improving the drug use process or the pharmacotherapy`s result through specific knowledge application. (2) However, to decide what cognitive services should or could be implemented, the pharmacist must be able to understand which kind of care and services patients demand. Besides, offering a non required service is not feasible. Moreover, patients should know about the skills and aptitudes of pharmacist, because confidence and expertise in professional activities are required. (3-4) Surveys are a traditional way of conducting research on primary care setting, and they are frequently used to collect information on attitudes and behavior. They often employ a questionnaire as a tool for data collection. (5-6) Objectives: To design and validate a questionnaire for assessing the customers/patients’ perceptions and expectations with professional services in community pharmacies. Material and Method A semi-structured and self-administered questionnaire was designed for this study. Questionnaires were distributed at different pharmacies during April 2010. A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out. (6) The questionnaire started with an introduction where the purpose of the survey was stated and a thank you message was given to the participants. After the introduction, 5 questions were displayed mostly in a check list format. Two options were related to the perception of the patients about the professional role. Finally, demographic data (age, sex, activity, educational level, etc) was requested. Setting: ten community pharmacies in three provinces of Argentina (Santa Fe, Córdoba and San Juan). Results: At present, 270 completed questionnaires were collected. The valid questionnaires were 266. The mean age of respondents was 45 years old and 62% of them were women. Thirty five percent of respondents were workers, 40.6% had high school studies, and 79.3% had health insurance. An equilibrium between business and profession oriented activities was marked by the 64.7% of the surveyed people. With regard to the activities, most people thought the pharmacist is capable of advising on medicines and/or medical conditions (62.8%) and counselling about how to use medicines (59.8%). The lowest ranked item was ‘‘To sell other products” (4.1%) different than medicines. Concerning to the kind of care, 81.6% of patients expected that the pharmacist spends the necessary time for proper counselling. Conclusions A questionnaire was designed to measure the customers/patients perceptions and expectations with the professional role of the pharmacist. The pilot study showed some confusing items for respondents. Most of people perceived that the pharmacist has many skills to maintain equilibrium between commercial and professional profile. Customers expectations were focused on the necessary time to receive proper advise from pharmacist.