Evaluation of patient opinions in a pharmacy‐level intervention study

Objective To explore patients' satisfaction with their community pharmacy's services and to evaluate the effects of an intervention programme in which a trained technician organised patient education activities in the pharmacy. Method We surveyed patients visiting the participating pharmacies at three stages: at the start of the intervention period (0 months, T0), at the end (after 12 months, T1), and 12 months after the intervention had been completed (24 months from baseline, T2). At each stage, 500 questionnaires were distributed by each pharmacy. Setting 28 Dutch community pharmacies: 14 intervention and 14 controls. Key findings The response rates were 54%, 44% and 43% at T0, T1 and T2, respectively. Baseline data showed that patients reported satisfaction with helpfulness, waiting time, ease of asking questions, answers to questions, and patient leaflets provided. Around two thirds (59.5%) of the patients said they would ask a pharmacy employee questions if they were concerned about side effects of their medication. Asking questions was not reported to be difficult for most patients (88.9%). The reasons most often given for experiencing difficulties with asking questions were related to lack of privacy (16.9% of all patients), waiting time of other patients (8.8%) and busy pharmacy employees (6.7%). The most frequently reported reason for being less satisfied with the answers to questions was receiving too little information (7.5%). Our analyses showed a significant improvement only on the outcome variable “helpfulness” experienced by patients between 0 (T0) and 12 months (T1), and this was found to be sustained one year later (T2). Conclusion The overall findings on patient satisfaction showed that almost two‐thirds of the respondents saw the pharmacy as a source of information about medication. Community pharmacies clearly have an important role in providing such information. Lack of privacy was the most common reason for patients reporting difficulties in asking questions about medicines and this needs pharmacists' attention. Our analysis showed that the intervention had an effect on “helpfulness” experienced by patients, which slightly increased in the intervention period (T0‐T1 differences) and appeared to have remained at the higher level one year later (T2).