title: Pharmacist-patient communication in Swedish community pharmacies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  It is important that pharmacists counsel patients about their prescribed medicines, as it leads to improved therapeutic outcome, increases compliance, and decreases confusion and insecurity. Studies have shown that the number of patients getting any pharmaceutical counseling varies greatly. Swedish pharmacists claim that the focus of the dialog with the patient has switched from pharmaceutical counseling to economy and regulations.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to determine the content and time disposition of the patient-pharmacist communication during dispensing of prescribed medicines at Swedish community pharmacies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Non-participant observations and audio recordings were used as data-collecting methods. The content of the dialog was categorized into 2 deductively decided main categories-medicinal and non-medicinal issues-and 12 inductively decided subcategories.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 282 pharmacy encounters were observed and recorded, of which 259 fully coincided with the inclusion criteria. After categorizing the content of each encounter the results showed that there was little or no dialog regarding medicinal issues during the pharmacy encounter in Swedish community pharmacies. Forty percent of the dialog concerns non-medical issues and almost half of the encounter was silent.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Medicines are an essential treatment method in healthcare, and pharmaceutical expertise is available to patients who enter a community pharmacy. The results of this study show that today's pharmacy encounter is not focused on improving the use of medication, possibly resulting in the patient not gaining the most benefit from his or her treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Uppsala University, BMC, P.O. Box 580, SE-751 23 Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address: erika.olsson@farmaci.uu.se.
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Olsson
authors.forename: Pontus
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ingman
authors.forename: Ban
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.forename: Sofia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kälvemark Sporrong
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D003157:Community Pharmacy Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003376:Counseling / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D024382:Professional Role; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D013548:Sweden; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Communication; Community pharmacists; Community pharmacy; Sweden