Key result
Thai NCD patients reported high desire and positive attitudes toward subdistrict health promotion hospital and drug store medicine delivery, with medium scores for postal and drive-thru methods.
Why the study?
Although the benefits of individual medicine delivery methods are known, evidence on patient desires and attitudes toward all delivery methods remains limited.
What are the desires and attitudes of Thai NCD patients towards various telepharmacy medicine delivery methods compared to conventional delivery?
Cross-Sectional
accidentally randomized technique
No
What are the desires and attitudes of Thai NCD patients towards various telepharmacy medicine delivery methods compared to conventional delivery?
Thai NCD patients showed high desire and positive attitudes toward local health promotion hospital and drug store medicine delivery methods, supporting decentralized telepharmacy models.
May guide decentralized telepharmacy preferences in Thailand; leaves open effects on adherence and outcomes.
The COVID-19 pandemic has limited healthcare services for patients with non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Hospital pharmacy departments in Thailand apply a new normal pharmacy service known as "telepharmacy" to serve remote pharmacy practice and deliver medication to patients. Current knowledge clearly shows the benefit of each medicine delivery method, but the study of patient's desires and attitudes towards all drug delivery methods is still limited. To fill the gap, this study aims to investigate desires and attitudes about drug delivery methods among Thai patients living with NCDs who need regular and continuous care. The sample was included by accidentally randomized technique at NCD clinics of the southern Thailand tertiary care hospital. Data were collected between January and March 2021 by a questionnaire that contained three sections: the currently received medicine delivery method, the desires and attitudes about the medicine delivery system, and patients' demographic information. The majority of patients were women aged 60 years who earned less than 10,000 THB (263.85 USD), were enrolled in the Civil Servant Medical Benefit Scheme (CSMBS), lived 0-15 km from the hospital, living with hypertension, had 1-4 prescribed medications, visited the doctor every 3 months, and received the conventional drug delivery method. The result showed that only the subdistrict health promotion hospital (SHPH) medicine delivery method was at a high level of desire, while the rest including conventional, drug store, postal pharmacy, and drive-thru medicine delivery methods were at medium. Attitudes toward the quality of medicine delivery methods consisted of five dimensions: confidence, timeliness, reliability, empathy, and facilities. Thai NCD patients had positive attitudes toward SHPH and drug store medicine delivery methods that could be seen from the high level of attitude score across all dimensions, while postal pharmacy and drive-thru delivery methods received medium-level attitude scores across all five dimensions.
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Wattana et al. (2022) conducted a cross-sectional in Non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Telepharmacy medicine delivery methods vs. Conventional drug delivery method was evaluated on Desires and attitudes about drug delivery methods. Thai NCD patients reported high desire and positive attitudes toward subdistrict health promotion hospital and drug store medicine delivery, with medium scores for postal and drive-thru methods.
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