Innvestigation on patient's and pharmacist's attitudes toward medical services in community pharmacies.

An investigation of patients' and pharmacists' attitudes toward medical services provided in community pharmacies was conducted in September, 2007. Respondents to the survey were patients and pharmacists in 160 stores of a chain pharmacy. The questionnaire consisted of 15 question items about pharmacy functions and three comprehensive evaluations of the pharmacy. The degree of importance and satisfaction was surveyed among 8995 patients, and the degree of importance and sufficiency was surveyed among 408 pharmacists. Multivariate analyses were performed using these data. Patients considered pharmacy functions as less important than did pharmacists for all items. The difference in attitude toword “the medication notebook” was particularly marked. Next, factor analysis was performed of the degree of importance in patients' and pharmacists' responses and three potential factors were extracted for each. However, the items constituting potential factors differed slightly between patients and pharmacists. Finally, multiple-regression analyses using three comprehensive evaluations as the independent variable and satisfaction with 15 items as a dependent variable were performed. In all three models, the standardization regression coefficient of “explanation of medicine” was large in the regression model of patients. On the other hand, the standardization regression coefficient of “consideration for patients” was large in the model of pharmacists. The influence of some patient attribute dummy variables was significant. Differences in the attitudes toward medical services and pharmacy functions were found between patients and pharmacists, and some items that should be improved were revealed.