Assessing consumers’ perception and demand on the community pharmacists’ dispensing

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Abstract

Background

This study aimed to assess the general public's perception of services provided by community pharmacies, their willingness to utilize these services, their satisfaction with and understanding of community pharmacists, and their views on dispensing separation and pharmacy medicines (P medicines).

Methods

An online cross-sectional study was conducted, in which questionnaires were distributed among the general public. A novel questionnaire was designed and validated specifically for this study. It was composed of six sections: demographics, pharmacy usage and service preferences, understanding and satisfaction with pharmacists, views on dispensing separation, private community pharmacies, and knowledge of P medicines. Statistical analyses such as one-way ANOVA, independent t test, and binary logistic regression were employed, with a p value of < 0.05 considered statistically significant.

Results

The study received 222 responses. The majority of the respondents were females within the 20–29-year-old age group (62.2%). Most respondents preferred to consult doctors for medical treatment, with their primary reason for visiting community pharmacies being to collect prescribed medicines. About 52.7% of respondents expressed their willingness to avail of screening services and treatment for minor illnesses at community pharmacies. A statistically significant difference was found among different age groups regarding their views on the dispensing separation system, with those aged 41–50 years demonstrating higher scores. However, the binary logistic regression analysis did not reveal any statistical significance when comparing the understanding of P medicines among respondents.

Conclusions

In general, the public prefers to consult doctors for medical treatment and visit community pharmacies predominantly to collect prescriptions or purchase over-the-counter medications. Nonetheless, they are also open to utilizing services provided by community pharmacists, particularly screening services and treatment for minor illnesses.

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Most cited references 21

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From "retailers" to health care providers: Transforming the role of community pharmacists in chronic disease management.

Elias Mossialos, Emilie Courtin, Huseyin Naci … (2015)

Community pharmacists are the third largest healthcare professional group in the world after physicians and nurses. Despite their considerable training, community pharmacists are the only health professionals who are not primarily rewarded for delivering health care and hence are under-utilized as public health professionals. An emerging consensus among academics, professional organizations, and policymakers is that community pharmacists, who work outside of hospital settings, should adopt an expanded role in order to contribute to the safe, effective, and efficient use of drugs-particularly when caring for people with multiple chronic conditions. Community pharmacists could help to improve health by reducing drug-related adverse events and promoting better medication adherence, which in turn may help in reducing unnecessary provider visits, hospitalizations, and readmissions while strengthening integrated primary care delivery across the health system. This paper reviews recent strategies to expand the role of community pharmacists in Australia, Canada, England, the Netherlands, Scotland, and the United States. The developments achieved or under way in these countries carry lessons for policymakers world-wide, where progress thus far in expanding the role of community pharmacists has been more limited. Future policies should focus on effectively integrating community pharmacists into primary care; developing a shared vision for different levels of pharmacist services; and devising new incentive mechanisms for improving quality and outcomes.

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The evolving role of the community pharmacist in chronic disease management - a literature review.

Tony George, B Lim, Joseph Molina … (2010)

We appraised the roles and responsibilities assigned to community pharmacists internationally and in Singapore. A systematic search of international peer-reviewed literature was undertaken using Medline. Grey literature was identified through generic search engines. The search period was from 1 January 1991 to 30 July 2009. The search criteria were English language manuscripts and search terms "community pharmacist", "community pharmacy", "disease management" and "roles" as a major heading. Boolean operators were used to combine the search terms. Identified abstracts were independently reviewed and the findings were presented as a narrative summary. Overall, we reviewed 115 articles on an abstract level and retrieved 45 of those as full text articles for background information review and inclusion into the evidence report. Of the articles included in the review, 32% were from United Kingdom (UK). Literature highlights the multi-faceted role of the community pharmacist in disease management. Community pharmacists were involved in the management of asthma, arthritis, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, depression, hypertension, osteoporosis and palliative care either alone or in the disease management team. Evidence of effectiveness for community pharmacy/ community pharmacist interventions exists for lipid, diabetes, and hypertension management and for preventive services such as weight management, osteoporosis prevention and fl u immunisation services. Majority of the community pharmacists in Singapore play the traditional role of dispensing. Attempts by the private community pharmacies to provide some professional services were not successful due to lack of funding. Factors found to impede the growth of community pharmacists are insufficient integration of community pharmacist input into healthcare pathways, poor relationship among pharmacists and physicians, lack of access to patient information, time constraints and inadequate compensation. Evidence from observational studies points out the wide range of roles played by the community pharmacist and provides insights into their integration into chronic disease management programmes and health promotion.

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Public’s attitudes towards community pharmacy in Qatar: a pilot study

Maguy El Hajj, Samah El-Salem, Hend Mansoor (2011)

Objectives To assess the public’s attitudes towards the community pharmacist’s role in Qatar, to investigate the public’s use of community pharmacy, and to determine the public’s views of and satisfaction with community pharmacy services currently provided in Qatar. Materials and methods Three community pharmacies in Qatar were randomly selected as study sites. Patients 16 years of age and over who were able to communicate in English or Arabic were randomly approached and anonymously interviewed using a multipart pretested survey. Results Over 5 weeks, 58 patients were interviewed (60% response rate). A total of 45% of respondents perceived community pharmacists as having a good balance between health and business matters. The physician was considered the first person to contact to answer drug- related questions by 50% of respondents. Most patients agreed that the community pharmacist should provide them with the medication directions of use (93%) and advise them about the treatment of minor ailments (79%); however, more than 70% didn’t expect the community pharmacist to monitor their health progress or to perform any health screening. Half of the participants (52%) reported visiting the pharmacy at least monthly. The top factor that affected a patient’s choice of any pharmacy was pharmacy location (90%). When asked about their views about community pharmacy services in Qatar, only 37% agreed that the pharmacist gave them sufficient time to discuss their problem and was knowledgeable enough to answer their questions. Conclusion This pilot study suggested that the public has a poor understanding of the community pharmacist’s role in monitoring drug therapy, performing health screening, and providing drug information. Several issues of concern were raised including insufficient pharmacist– patient contact time and unsatisfactory pharmacist knowledge. To advance pharmacy practice in Qatar, efforts may be warranted to address identified issues and to promote the community pharmacist’s role in drug therapy monitoring, drug information provision, and health screening.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Hui Poh Goh: pohhui.goh@ubd.edu.bn

Andi Hermansyah: andi-h@ff.unair.ac.id

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): J Pharm Policy Pract

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): J Pharm Policy Pract

Title: Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 2052-3211

Publication date (Electronic): 29 November 2023

Publication date PMC-release: 29 November 2023

Publication date Collection: 2023

Volume: 16

Electronic Location Identifier: 162

Affiliations

[1 ]PAP Rashidah Sa’adatul Bolkiah Institute of Health Sciences, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, ( https://ror.org/02qnf3n86) Gadong, BE1410 Brunei

[2 ]Department of Pharmacy, Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, ( https://ror.org/03b9y4e65) Mardan, 23200 Pakistan

[3 ]College of Medical Sciences, Azal University for Human Development, Sana’a, Yemen

[4 ]College of Pharmacy, University of Science and Technology of Fujairah, ( https://ror.org/00dgnn742) P.O. Box 2202, Fujairah, United Arab Emirates

[5 ]Department of Pharmacy Practice, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Airlangga, ( https://ror.org/04ctejd88) Surabaya, 60115 Indonesia

[6 ]School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University, ( https://ror.org/04mjt7f73) 47500 Bandar Sunway, Selangor Malaysia

Article

Publisher ID: 609

DOI: 10.1186/s40545-023-00609-1

PMC ID: 10685624

PubMed ID: 38031133

SO-VID: d3bc034d-589f-426e-bae8-b9c08effe500

License:

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

History

Date received : 18 May 2023

Date accepted : 16 September 2023

Custom metadata

Keywords: consumers’ perception,affordability,health policy,dispensing separation system,medicine,medicine access

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Keywords: consumers’ perception, affordability, health policy, dispensing separation system, medicine, medicine access

Assessing consumers’ perception and demand on the community pharmacists’ dispensing

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Abstract

Background

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Most cited references 21

From "retailers" to health care providers: Transforming the role of community pharmacists in chronic disease management.

The evolving role of the community pharmacist in chronic disease management - a literature review.

Public’s attitudes towards community pharmacy in Qatar: a pilot study

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