Background

Patient satisfaction with pharmaceutical services is a complex concept and an important indicator of the quality of patients care. We aimed to assess patient satisfaction with pharmaceutical care services provided at public and private hospital for outpatient pharmacies.

Materials and Methods

A cross sectional study was conducted in three hospitals in Nablus city in the Northern district of West Bank, Palestine. Participants were a convenience sample of outpatients who attended the study selected hospitals (two public and one private). A sample of 30 patients from each hospital was selected with a total of 90 patients. A structured self-administered questionnaire consisted of four parts covering socio-demographic, pharmacist related issues with 5-point likert scale, waiting and working (operating) time, and in addition to medications availability was used.

Results

A total of 90 patients were recruited. The overall level of patient satisfaction with pharmaceutical health services was moderate with a mean of 3.24 out of 5. Females represented 58.9%. The most prevalent age was (30-39) years (30%). There was a statistically significant difference in patient satisfaction with pharmaceutical services regarding working time between the morning and evening shifts (P-value=0.009) in favour of morning shift. No statistically significant differences in satisfaction with pharmaceutical treatments based on socio-demographics were found.  Nearly, 70% of patients indicated having problems to get the medicine in their last visit to the hospital pharmacy. Only 66.7% of patients expressed satisfaction with the pharmacies’ operating (working) hours.

Conclusion

Patient satisfaction with pharmaceutical care services could be more enhanced by involving pharmacists in patient-oriented trainings and informing patients about the role of pharmacists. Patient satisfaction in the evening shift might be improved by implementing effective monitoring and control in both the day and night shifts.

Keywords: Hospitals; Outpatients; Perceived opinions; Pharmaceutical health services; Satisfaction.

 

Title

Raya Sawalha

Publisher

Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice

Publisher Country

United Kingdom

Indexing

Scopus

Impact Factor

4.2

Publication Type

Online only

Volume

16

Year

2024

Pages

108