Counselling quality in community pharmacies: implementation of the pseudo customer methodology in Germany

Abstract

The pseudo customer method was successfully used in this study of German community pharmacies. It was shown that pseudo customer visits and performance feedback following the counselling process, were feasible in daily practice and well accepted by the participants. A training program, focussing on areas in most need of improvement, has been developed. The promising results have led to the Federal Chamber of Pharmacists in Germany adopting this method as part of a continuous quality improvement program in community pharmacies.

Assessment of counselling for acute diarrhoea in German pharmacies: a simulated patient study†

“…While, for example, barely any information was provided for the criterion ‘side effects’, pharmacies often provided information about the dosage of the medication. Similar differences are also seen in the international literature 6, 7, 16, 28, 30, 31, 41, 42…”

“…Analogous to other national and international studies,1, 6, 23, 24, 29, 45 significant differences were confirmed between symptom‐based and medication‐based enquiries. In this respect, it would be important to make pharmacies or their staff more aware of the need to provide advice, particularly for medication‐based enquiries, for example, using training.…”

“…Because there is clear evidence in the international literature of differences in the reporting quality between symptom‐based and medication‐based requests,1, 6, 23, 24 this study aimed to determine whether these differences also apply to the indication ‘acute diarrhoea’ in addition to determining pharmacies’ compliance with the standard of advice required. For this reason, two of the scenarios were designed as medication based (test scenarios 1 and 3) and the other two were symptom based (test scenarios 2 and 4).…”

Assessment of the attitude of community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians towards diarrhea: A simulated patient study in Turkey

“…A simulated patient method is commonly used for the evaluation of pharmaceutical services in community pharmacies [4][5][6][7]. The reason for choosing a simulated patient method in this study is to acquire feedback in a safe and effective way that can be drawn on to improve the continuing professional development of pharmacists.…”

Virtual Patients in Pharmacy Education

“…[1][2][3] The effective delivery of pharmaceutical care interventions requires not only sound clinical knowledge of medication, but also good communication skills to interact with patients and review their medication needs and use. Over a decade ago, the World Health Organization identified the ability to communicate effectively as a skill pharmacists must possess in support of their role, 4 prompting pharmacy colleges and schools around the world to introduce communication skills as an integral part of the pharmacy curriculum.…”