Assessing Patient Satisfaction with Community Pharmacy Services: A Large Regional Study at Punjab, Pakistan

Purpose: Patient satisfaction can be used to assess the quality of services provided at pharmacies. Our aim was to determine the level of patient satisfaction with pharmacy services and related factors at community pharmacies located in Punjab, Pakistan. Results: Response rate of the survey was 92%. Only 30% of patients agreed that the pharmacist was available for counseling on their visit. About 52% agreed that the counseling time provided by pharmacist was enough. Most of the pharmacy patients (61%) trusted the pharmacist regarding any query about medicine and were satisfied with the way the pharmacist resolved issues. Mean satisfaction score of the pharmacy patients was 45.75 with a range of 25 (highly satisfied) to 66 (highly dissatisfied). Conclusion: The provision of community pharmacy services to patients was not satisfactory. Furthermore, the absence of pharmacist in the pharmacy and the lack of provision for counseling time raised concerns.