Development of external methods to evaluate the quality of pharmacy services offered by community pharmacists

Abstract

The inclusion in a quality assessment program of the perception, held by patients and health professionals, of the impact of pharmacy services on patient care improves the comprehensiveness of the quality assurance program. The study described in this paper was carried out as part of a project intended to develop a quality assurance program for community pharmacies. The aim of the study was to develop external methods for non-pharmacists to evaluate the quality of pharmacy services offered by community pharmacists. Two measurement instruments were developed: Consumer Services Tool and Health Professionals Tool. The tools were based on a quantitative measurement system and assessed satisfaction with pharmacists' advice, pharmacotherapy monitoring services and layout of the dispensary. The Consumer Services Tool was presented to 500 patients visiting community pharmacies and the Health Professionals Tool was presented to 33 health professionals attending clinics attached to community pharmacies. The results indicated that consumers have a good perception of the pharmacists and were satisfied with the pharmacy services while health professionals expressed the need to improve pharmacy services. The results were compared to those from a parallel study undertaken in the same pharmacies using an internal quality assessment exercise. There was absence of correlation between the external and internal quality assurance assessments: this supports the necessity for a comprehensive quality assurance program that includes an internal and an external component.