A survey was conducted to examine what the public expects of pharmacists. We created 26 questions based on 26 diŠerent situations that patients encounter at pharmacies in order to assess patient satisfaction/dissatisfaction. Some questions were designed to compare pairs of symmetrical situations. The survey was carried out in February and March 2001. The surveys were conducted with patients and/or patients' relatives who brought their prescriptions to pharmacies and with employees of pharmaceutical companies and their family members. A factor analysis extracted two factors among the 26 variables, theˆrst being patient dissatisfaction and the second being patient satisfaction. However, factor loadings for some paired situations were not necessarily symmetrical and thus the absolute values of the scores were not equal. The results suggest that satisfaction on one side does not entail dissatisfaction on the other side and thus satisfaction and dissatisfaction can be examined as separate and distinct entities. Based on these results, we classiˆed pharmaceutical services into two types. Theˆrst type is referred to as instrumental service. In this situation patients do not feel great satisfaction even if such service is provided. However, they feel great dissatisfaction if the service is not provided. The second type is referred to as expressive service. These patients feel some satisfaction if such service is provided, however, they do not feel a fatal dissatisfaction if the service is not provided. Our research documents that when examining data based on the assumption that there is a diŠerent dimensionality for patient satisfaction and dissatisfaction, it is possible to gain insights into new aspects of pharmaceutical services that are otherwise impossible to assess.

Today pharmacists provide indispensable drug information to patients, however, few studies have examined the kind of information that patients want, or their satisfaction with pharmacists' advice. Therefore, we have examined a variety of factors, including individual patient characteristics, in order to identify ways to provide useful and appropriate drug information on an individual basis. In short, the aim of this study was to develop a drug information service that addresses patient needs. A prospective survey of patient satisfaction with the level of care provided by pharmacists, before and after a telephone counseling session, was performed over a 9 month period (2000-2001). Along with satisfaction ratings, the content of the interviews was assessed, along with patient characteristics. Correspondence analysis was used to classify the content of the consultations, and cluster analysis was performed to classify caller characteristics. In total, 2022 people were counseled. It should be noted that, on occasion, family members were interviewed instead of the patients themselves. The average counseling session was 11.5 minutes (n = 1876). Patients expressing the least dissatisfaction prior to counseling tended to have the highest satisfaction levels after counseling. Almost all patients were satisfied with the counseling they received. An association was found between levels of pre-counseling dissatisfaction and time spent counseling patients over the telephone. No dimensions of high inertia were identified by correspondence analysis of consultation content and patient characteristics (n = 1667), however, questions regarding "efficacy and indications", "dosages and administration", "anxiety of adverse events", "realization of adverse events", and "interactions" were deemed similar by correspondence analysis. This study shows that patient perceptions regarding drug information services differ from those of pharmacists. Furthermore, several subtypes of patients were identified, based on their responsiveness to counseling. Pharmacists should take this into consideration when standing face-to-face with patients in the setting of their pharmacy practice.