Patient satisfaction with pharmaceutical care: update of a validated instrument.
OBJECTIVE
To develop a questionnaire for measuring patient satisfaction with pharmaceutical care and to establish its factorial composition.


METHODS
Single intervention, noncomparative, 20-item self-administered questionnaire.


METHODS
Iowa.


METHODS
Seven hundred seventy-five prescription patrons of eight community pharmacies whose pharmacists had received training in pharmaceutical care but who had not yet implemented it.


METHODS
An instrument originally developed to measure patient satisfaction with traditional community pharmacy services was modified to focus on the elements of pharmaceutical care. This revised questionnaire was mailed to participants.


METHODS
Participant responses to items in the questionnaire.


RESULTS
The survey response rate was 55%. Factor analysis and item analysis identified two dimensions of pharmaceutical care. We labeled the dimensions Friendly Explanation (including items related to friendliness of care, the setting of care, and medication counseling) and Managing Therapy (items dealing with the concept of pharmaceutical care-managing drug therapy and solving therapy problems). Respondents scored items on the Managing Therapy scale lower than they did items on the Friendly Explanation scale. The scales were highly correlated. Two other hypothesized dimensions of care-Consideration/Caring Relationships and Setting-were subsumed in the final scale of Friendly Explanation.


CONCLUSIONS
The instrument provides information on patients' satisfaction with two dimensions of pharmacy services. The instrument may be useful to practicing pharmacists, but it should be used cautiously until it is tested among patrons of pharmacies known to provide different levels of care.
Larson
Lon N
LN
Drake University, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Department of Pharmacy, Des Moines, Iowa 50311-4505, USA. lon.larson@drake.edu
Rovers
John P
JP
MacKeigan
Linda D
LD
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003157:Community Pharmacy Services; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007484:Iowa; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires