@article {58, title = {Assessment of Pharmaceutical Care Services Provided by a Community Pharmacy in Kedah, Malaysia}, journal = {Pharmacology, Toxicology and Biomedical Reports}, volume = {1}, year = {2015}, month = {6th May, 2015}, pages = {73-80}, type = {Original Article}, chapter = {73}, abstract = {

Objectives: To assess the pharmaceutical care services provided by the pharmacists in a community pharmacy in Kedah. Method: Prospective analysis of pharmaceutical care services provided by a community pharmacy in Kedah, by means of customized questionnaires given to the customers. Convenience sampling technique was used. Descriptive analysis was used to compute the data collected. Results: Out of a total of 508 respondents, 251 (49.41\%) of the patients responded that they always go to the community pharmacy; 377 (74.21\%) stated that the pharmacist discuss their health issues with them. 297 (58.46\%) respondents stated that the pharmacists spent around 5 to 9 minutes per customer. 189 (37\%) of respondents indicated that the pharmacist or pharmacist{\textquoteright}s assistant did not explain to them how to take their medication correctly, while 358 (70.47\%) of respondents stated that the pharmacist did not find out if the patient understand the instructions given. Regarding the responsibility that the pharmacist assumes for patient drug therapy 155 (30.15\%) of respondents answered {\textquotedblleft}Yes{\textquotedblright} and 353 (69.49\%) stated {\textquotedblleft}No{\textquotedblright}. 489 (96.26\%) of the respondents agreed the pharmacists show readiness to listen and answer their questions as well as use simple language while counselling. 314 (61.81\%) stated that the counselling services provided by pharmacist is useful with regard to the medication(s) and the disease condition. 264 (51.97\%) were satisfied and stated that the overall rating of pharmaceutical care services in the pharmacy was good. Conclusion: Community pharmacists must discuss health issues with their patients, spend sufficient amount of time with each patient at each visit. Counselling services are a vital part of pharmaceutical care services. The pharmacist and/or their assistants must explain to the patients how to take their medication correctly. Assessing the patients{\textquoteright} comprehension with regard to the medication(s) is another mandatory role of the community pharmacist. In this study, majority of the respondents 264 (51.97\%) felt that the pharmaceutical care services provided overall by the community pharmacy was good, though improvements could be made with regard to understanding the patients{\textquoteright} comprehension levels.

}, keywords = {Community Pharmacist, Counselling services, General Level Framework, Patients satisfaction, Pharmaceutical care services, Seven-star pharmacist.}, doi = {10.5530/PTB.1.2.7}, author = {Aaseer Thamby Sam and Thenmoli Hanbrasi a/p Jothy and Subramani Parasuraman} }