Research Article
A Survey on Consumer Need and Opinion about the Community Pharmacists in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2457, Riyadh-11451, Saudi Arabia
The community pharmacy services will not grow and prosper unless the pharmacists try to meet the needs of the customer who seeks service. Many studies have been designed to show the public opinion of the community pharmacist and explicitly determine for the factors (location, range of products, working hours and services) important to clients when seeking the advice of the pharmacist (Gastelurrutia et al., 2006; Oparah and Kikanme, 2006; Anderson, 2007; Tinelli et al., 2007). However, such issues have not been investigated in Saudi population. Hence, to provide attractive and efficient services (location, products, timings and services) for clients in community pharmacy in Saudi Arabia, factors considered important to clients need to be explored and established which are considered fundamental to the development of strategies to expand and promote community pharmacy services in Saudi Arabia.
A survey on consumer need and opinion about the community pharmacists in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was conducted on personal interview survey of 187 consumers in Riyadh. Survey of consumers was undertaken during six weeks beginning from 23rd December 2007.
Personal interview survey of 187 consumers, who seek advice of a random sample of 25 community pharmacies (chain and independent) in Riyadh city, was obtained through a 4 h visit made to each pharmacy over a period of six weeks. During these visits, questionnaires were filled by a pharmacy student of all consumers who requested advice from the pharmacists. Of importance, the nature and purpose of the study were discussed with each consumer and assurance of confidentiality and anonymity were made. The interview questionnaire was presented and structured consisting of open and closed questions. Customers were asked to explain the reason (s) that made them decide to come to the pharmacy for advice, throughout open ended questions. Thereafter, they were asked to state which of those was most important. Similarly, customers were asked about the most important reason (s) for choosing a particular pharmacy. Respondents were asked to indicate the frequency and the range of health areas for which they had previously sought advice. Health topics about which consumers said they would like to seek advice from the pharmacist were also stated and recorded. The attitude of clients to six items (short distance from home, good range of products, efficient services, attractive appearance, convenient working hours, acquaintance with the staff) regarding their views towards pharmacists and their assistants were also addressed.
A total of 152 of 187 respondents completed the questionnaire giving a response rate of 81.28%. All the interviewed respondents were males, since they approximately comprised over 90% of customers due to social consideration in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The results showed that 68% of the respondents were Saudi and 92% were residents in Riyadh city. In response to reasons for coming to a particular pharmacy, 32.5% of respondents claimed that they felt that their complaints were not serious enough to warrant seeking medical advice. Whereas, 28.7% said that it was more convenient to see the pharmacists. Furthermore, 18.3% rated that the pharmacists appropriate understanding is the only reason why they come to visit the pharmacy. Moreover, 6 and 14.5% of the respondents either make non-specific comments or stated that they have no time to visit the clinic, respectively (Table 1).
Respondents were also asked to indicate how many times per year they have requested a pharmacists advice. A total of 68% of respondents have sought advice from pharmacist, at least once per year. For all respondents the results reflect an annual average of about two requests for advice or information per respondent per year (Table 2).
Table 3 shows the range of health areas and other types of advice for which respondents were requested. Fifty percent asked for advice about OTC medications and 39% sought prescription advice. Minor health problems, first aid information and babys needs were sought by 28, 21 and 19% of respondents, respectively, whereas, 6% sought information about general health matters and other topics.
Table 1: | Reasons for pharmacists advice |
Table 2: | Frequency of advice sought from the pharmacist |
When the respondents were asked about the most important reasons for choosing a particular pharmacy, 65% indicated that they have chosen the nearest location from their home and 34% attributed the reasons to the good range of products, the pharmacy contains and excellent services provided by the pharmacist. Whereas, 29% stated that it was the convenient working hours of the pharmacy that was considered in choosing the pharmacy. On the other hand, the efficiency of services (22%), attractive appearance of the pharmacy (14%) and knowledge of the staff (10%) were among factors clients considered as important in choosing a particular pharmacy (Table 4).
In other questions, clients were asked to state the important kinds of goods and services that should be available in all pharmacies (Table 5).
Table 3: | Type of advice requested from the pharmacists |
*Multiple answers means that the percentages sum to be more than 100% |
Table 4: | Reasons to choose a particular pharmacy |
*Multiple answers means that the percentages sum to be more than 100% |
Table 5: | Products and services to be available in all pharmacies |
*Multiple answers means that the percentages sum to be more than 100% |
Table 6: | Desiring qualities of a pharmacist |
*Multiple answers means that the percentages sum to be more than 100% |
With regards to questions on personal qualities in the pharmacists needed by the clients, 62% stated that the most important qualities demanded are the willingness to provide both verbal and written advice, while 29% said that it was the quicker services which most frequently desired. On the other hand, 31% stated that competence and more knowledge about medicines are qualities they highly sought. Similarly, honesty, speaking mother language (Arabic), friendliness and clear hand-writing were among the most important qualities appreciated by 21, 20, 14 and 10% of the respondents, respectively (Table 6).
The attitudes of the customers to a list of six items regarding their views towards pharmacists were shown in Table 7. The results showed that the overall trend in these stated items is towards uncertainty, rating 3-4 scores on 5-point scale. Except for the item Pharmacist is impersonal which show a low score of 2.29%. Moreover, about 72% of respondents were either agreed or strongly agreed that pharmacists are qualified as a health professional, 63.82% agreed or strongly agreed that pharmacist assistant do not know enough about health care to give an advice. However, 50% of the respondents agree or strongly agree that pharmacists are the primary source of medication information. Almost, 42% agreed that pharmacists should stock supermarket items and nearly 39% agree or strongly agree that pharmacists are not qualified to discuss with customers their health complaints. In contrast, 71.71% disagree or strongly disagree that pharmacists are impersonal.
The present study highlights a variety of factors that motivates community pharmacy patronage. Regardless the reasons concerning OTC and prescription dispensing, some of the customers (28.7%) come to the pharmacy on their convenience. Others (65 and 29%) consider convenience of location and working hours of the pharmacy as the important factors influencing their decision to seek pharmacists advice, respectively. Yet, a substantial number of clients are still stimulated by pharmacy design and good range of mix product and services provided by the pharmacy as well. Furthermore, with regards to clients view toward the pharmacist, the study revealed a high level of support for the advisory and health related role of the pharmacist. The result confirms the findings of earlier surveys (Gilbert, 1998; Oparah and Kikanme, 2006; Anderson, 2007; Sakurai et al., 2007). This in fact shows that clients do perceive the pharmacist as an important source of advice for patient-oriented services rather than merely a medical supplier.
It is interesting to note that most of the clients emphasize on the advisory role of the pharmacist and his clinical knowledge rather than personal aspects (honesty, friendliness and other characters) as the favorite quality of a pharmacist. This result is consistent with other reported studies which showed that low professional image of pharmacists is due to their lack of necessary clinical knowledge (Lustig and Zusman, 1994). This is overwhelming support, although indicates that clients may expect a satisfactory standard of professional competence and assume a safe and appropriate advisory services based on pharmacists clinical knowledge. Attention must be paid to the importance of these personal aspects, if the pharmacist wishes to meet all customer needs. Likewise, the accepted dual professional commercial role of the pharmacist by clients which was reflected in many of types of advice and services requested, dictates the need for developing extra counseling skills by the pharmacist, in order to deal with topics such as babys cares and other minor health problems (Villako and Raal, 2007).
Table 7: | Consumer views regarding pharmacists |
*Multiple answers means that the percentages sum to be more than 100% |
The present study has also highlighted some of the aspects of pharmacy important services to patient/clients and considered fundamentally to the development of strategies to expand and promote community pharmacy services in Saudi Arabia. In conclusion, the result of the study showed a high level of public support for the advisory role of the pharmacist. To be effective in this role, the pharmacist needs to have good professional training and improves his communication skills (Tanaka et al., 2008) by devoting more of his time to challenging and stimulating tasks such as counseling patient/clients on drugs and other health related matters (McGivney et al., 2003). Communicating with patients also creates patient loyalty and improves the pharmacists professional image. Furthermore, a variety of other factors that motivates pharmacy visits were also determined. Building strategies based on these findings will greatly help in maintaining regular customers and attract impulse and infrequent clients. Finally, it is not possible to conclude from the present study the reasons that inhibit clients from seeking the pharmacist advice. Possibly the lack of privacy and associated supermarket style marketing may have great influence in deterring those potential advice-seekers (Lindblad et al., 2006). Thus, the problem of providing a suitable environment for privacy must be addressed, if the pharmacist wishes to attract social advisory seekers.
The assistance of Mr. Ammar Abdul Hameed, a pharmacy student, in data collection and analysis is acknowledged with thanks.