Quality of pharmaceutical care is closely associated with patient satisfaction

Patients Satisfaction with Pharmaceutical Care and Associated Factors in the Southwestern Ethiopia

BACKGROUND

An evaluation of patient satisfaction with service provided in the health care system has been globally recognized as the measure of health care service quality. However, there is a lack of research findings that indicate patient satisfaction with newly implemented patient-oriented pharmaceutical care (PC) service provided by clinical pharmacists in Ethiopia. Therefore, the current study is aimed to determine the level of patient satisfaction and associated factors with PC service provided by clinical pharmacists in the Southwestern Ethiopia.

METHODOLOGY

A facility-based cross-sectional study design was employed among patients admitted to Medical wards in Jimma University Medical Center (JUMC) (n=219) from May to June 2021. The pretested interviewer-administered questionnaire containing structured questions on a 5-point Likert scale was appropriately completed and returned for statistical analysis. For the analysis of data, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used. The associations between status of patient satisfaction and predictors were determined at 5% (p<0.05) level of significance by employing multivariate logistic regression.

RESULTS

The current study revealed that more than half (56%) of the respondents were satisfied with clinical pharmacy service. From 30% of drug therapy problems (DTPs) reported, non-adherence was the most prevalent (11.4%), while the dose being too low and adverse effects (0.9%) were the least reported. Moreover, the assignment particular clinical pharmacist (AOR: 2.091, 95% CI: 1.028, 4.255), previous admission (AOR: 0.459, 95% CI: 0.244, 0.86), number of medications taken per day (AOR: 1.929, 95% CI: 1.996, 3.739) and length of hospital stay (AOR: 2.236, 95% CI: 1.124, 4.446) were significantly associated with patient satisfaction.

CONCLUSION

The present study revealed that patient satisfaction towards PC was low. Lack of specific clinical pharmacist assignment, previous history of admission, number of medications taken per day and length of hospital stay are revealed as the major factors affecting the level of satisfaction. In addition, current findings implicate that clinical pharmacist collaboration with a multidisciplinary team is essential to increase patient satisfaction.

Pharmaceutical care in Chinese public tertiary hospitals: findings from the 4th National Healthcare Improvement Initiative Survey

BACKGROUND

Pharmaceutical care has been playing an increasingly critical role in Chinese hospitals. However, evidence about the most recent development of pharmaceutical care in China is limited. This study analyzed the current situation of pharmaceutical care and the capacities of pharmacists in Chinese public tertiary hospitals.

METHODS

All on-duty pharmacists of 143 public tertiary hospitals responded to the Likert-5 pre-set online questionnaire about their pharmaceutical care capacities in eight aspects, and their respective hospitals valued pharmaceutical care in clinical practice from March 18 to 31, 2019. This study measured the appraisals of the responding pharmacists as positive ("strongly agree" and "agree") or negative ("neither agree nor disagree," "strongly disagree," and "disagree") results. The study performed a descriptive analysis of the responding pharmacists and unconditional multivariate binary logistic regression analysis to predict the influencing factors of the pharmacists' appraisals of pharmaceutical care. The dependent variable was transformed into binary categories and assigned 1 = positive response and 0 = negative response. The independent variables included the identifications of sample hospitals and the characteristics of the responding pharmacists.

RESULTS

The survey retrieved 10 815 valid responded questionnaires. 74.5%, 67.5%, and 65.0% of the responding pharmacists made a positive self-appraisal of their abilities of communication with patients and doctors, reviewing prescriptions, and communication with particular patients, respectively. 65.5% had a positive appraisal of their respective hospitals to conduct active monitoring of the clinical use of new medicines, and 68.9% admitted that their respective hospitals valued the clinical pharmaceutical care. The doctor's degree and senior academic rank of the responding pharmacists, as well as maternal and child hospitals, were predictors of higher appraisals of the responding pharmacists about their pharmaceutical care capacities, and their respective hospitals valued pharmaceutical care (all ORs > 1.5, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

The study suggested that there is a need to strengthen the pharmacy education, training, and staffing of pharmacists with improved professional skills to offer value-added specialized pharmaceutical care in Chinese public hospitals. Patient-centered and inter-disciplinary interactions in medical practice should be promoted. There is also a need for public hospitals to provide a platform for the achievement of the professional values of high-quality pharmacists at different carrier development stages.