Consumer views of community pharmacy services in Bangalore city, India

OBJECTIVE The opinion about pharmacy services was studied using an instrument which measured satisfaction with pharmacy services. The main focus of the instrument was to assess patients' opinion and expectation of the present pharmacy services. METHOD The instrument contained 20 items, which were grouped based on their similarity into eight dimensions, namely, General satisfaction, Interpersonal Skill, Evaluation, Gathering non-medical information, Trust, Helping Patients, Explanation, and Finance. Chance random sampling was done and the participants were the general public above the age of 18 years. The main outcome measure was to study participants' opinion regarding the current and desired pharmacy services. Descriptive statistics are presented for the satisfaction dimension score. The level of satisfaction with the different dimensions was compared across the different demographic characteristics. RESULT The study results revealed significant difference in the General satisfaction and Interpersonal skill amongst the gender. Significant difference was seen in the Helping patients, Evaluation and Explanation skill among the various age groups. Education background showed significant difference in evaluation, Gathering-non-medical information, Helping patients and Explanation skills of the pharmacist. There was an overall satisfaction dimension score of 56.83% in the current practice and 68.83% in the desired practice. CONCLUSION Awareness about pharmacy service continuing education programme for practicing pharmacist will heighten the pharmacy profession in our country.