title: Patient reactions to community pharmacies' roles: evidence from the Portuguese market.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is little knowledge about how patients perceive and react to the extended role of community pharmacies.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To develop a model describing the expanded role of Portuguese community pharmacies as comprising three roles - medicines supplier, advice provider and community health promoter - and two important patient reactions: satisfaction and loyalty.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 2010, 1200 face-to-face interviews were conducted with patients of community pharmacies in Portugal. A model comprising the three pharmacy roles and the two patient reactions was developed and tested using structural equation modelling.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that the model was appropriate and that the roles of medicines supplier, advice provider and community health promoter were positively related to patients' satisfaction and loyalty.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results show that patients are aware of the different roles played by community pharmacies in Portugal. The data support the idea that the movement of Portuguese pharmacists' extended role, framed within a global context where society sends expectations regarding the role of organizations in the community in which they operate, is producing positive results for both patients and pharmacists.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Resources Management and Organizational Behavior, ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Francisco G
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: Nunes
authors.affiliation: Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, King's College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Janet E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Resources Management and Organizational Behavior, ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Luis M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Martins
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010594:Pharmacies; D011174:Portugal
keywords: community pharmacy roles; loyalty; pharmacy patients; satisfaction