CUSTOMER EXPECTATION SURVEY ON THE COMPETENCY OF COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS AND FUTURE SERVICE

Abstract

A survey was conducted in Thailand on customer expectation of community pharmacists’ competency and current and future community pharmacy service. A descriptive, cross-sectional questionnaire was used. A nationwide sample of nearly 300 pharmacy customers who entered pharmacies were asked to complete the questionnaire by a community pharmacist.  A five-point Likert scale of expectation (1 = least agree to 5 = most agree) with open-ended questions was used.  The response rate was 82.33% with the majority of pharmacy customers being female (61.90%). Most of them were company employees, had social security rights, and got services from pharmacy located in Bangkok. Purchasing medications for minor illnesses or treating symptoms was the main purpose of using pharmacy services. The main aspect of community pharmacists and their services was the ability to give advice more than sell medicine (28.48%). According to 3 domains: community pharmacist competency, community pharmacy service, and community pharmacy future service included a total of 43 statements of expectations. The domains’ highest scores were “demonstrate high professional and ethical practice” (4.83 ± 0.45), “do not sell expired and illegal drugs” (4.87 ± 0.47), and “able to refer patients needing intensive care to a hospital” (4.20 ± 0.86), respectively. In conclusion, community pharmacists were expected to be moral and ethical, provide good quality medicine, and facilitate customers’ ease of access to health services.