Patient Evaluation of a Community Pharmacy Medications Management Service

Abstract

Pharmacist intervention was associated with significant and positive changes in patient satisfaction. While patients probably continue to prefer a physician-led service, they value aspects of a pharmacy service. Patients generally preferred discussing medications with the family physician, but experiencing the community pharmacy-led service resulted in an attitudinal shift toward the pharmacist. These findings suggest a benefit in developing the community pharmacist's role as a reviewer of, and adviser on, patients' medications.

Satisfaction Survey for a Medication Management Program: Satisfaction Guaranteed?

“…These results are comparable to the findings of other evaluations of patient satisfaction with pharmacy services. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] They will be used to support the continuance of the MMP and to advocate for expansion of the program throughout the Fraser Health Authority. Because respondents provided few suggestions for improvement, there was little information to guide changes to the way in which the program is delivered.…”

“…These response rates have ranged from 28% to 88.4% for mail surveys, 7,9,11,[13][14][15][16]18 from 82.1% to 100% for in-person interviews, 10,17 from 76.6% to 90.4% for self-administered surveys in a pharmacy or clinic, 19,20 and 59% for a telephone interview. 8 Although patient satisfaction with pharmacy services has been reported as high, most evaluations of satisfaction have not used an experimental design.…”

“…8 Although patient satisfaction with pharmacy services has been reported as high, most evaluations of satisfaction have not used an experimental design. Among evaluations conducted by means of comparison trials, there have been discrepancies, with some authors reporting higher patient satisfaction among those who received the intervention being studied than among those who received no intervention (i.e., usual care), 12,16 and other authors reporting no difference in satisfaction between those who received the pharmacy services intervention and those who received usual care. 21,22 In both of the studies in which patient satisfaction with pharmacy services was higher in the intervention group than the nonintervention group, the survey was developed specifically for the evaluation and was based on literature and the project itself.…”

“…21,22 In both of the studies in which patient satisfaction with pharmacy services was higher in the intervention group than the nonintervention group, the survey was developed specifically for the evaluation and was based on literature and the project itself. 12,16 In one of the studies in which satisfaction was not higher in the intervention group, 22 the survey used to assess patient satisfaction 23 had been developed to assess health services in general, not pharmacy services in particular. In the other study that reported no comparative benefit of the intervention, in terms of satisfaction, 21 the tool used to measure satisfaction was the General Satisfaction with Pharmacy Services Scale, a satisfaction questionnaire that has been evaluated for reliability and validity.…”

“…High levels of patient satisfaction with both clinical and dispensing pharmacy functions have been reported in the literature. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] However, satisfaction with home care pharmacy services has been sparsely reported and has been evaluated with only small numbers of patients. 7,8 Moreover, to the authors' knowledge, no established, validated survey questionnaire has been published to evaluate patient satisfaction in this setting.…”