Amna Bibi, Jamil Ahmed, Tabinda Zaman, Ramesh Kumar, Shahzad Ali Khan, Saima Hamid.
Perceived quality of pharmacy services among out patients of a tertiary care hospital in Islamabad.
Pak J Public Health Jan ;5(4):29-33.

Introduction: Patient satisfaction with the outpatient pharmacy services is associated with better performing hospitals and improved quality of care. This descriptive study was conducted to describe patient satisfaction towards outpatient health care services provided by the pharmacy department of a major tertiary care hospital in Islamabad. Methods: This was a hospital based cross sectional study. The study population was male and female outpatients, aged 16 and above. We selected a sample of 241 patients and interviewed them in 2012. The data was collected through structured questionnaires. Results: The results showed that the overall satisfaction was 82.67%. The patients were most satised with attitude of the staff (84%) while least satised with courtesy (73.11%). Only 51% were satised with the guidance in the hospital, 69% agreed with the explanation to prepare and consume medicine and 59.8% were satised with instructions about the proper storage of the prescribed medicine. Only about half of the patients were satised with the number of pharmacy staff and toilets and drinking water arrangement. Conclusion: The pharmacy staff need to be more congenial toward patients and the patients who are often less educated need to be properly guided and explained about the dose, preparation and storage of the medicine. Proper labeling of the medication is also needed. In physical facilities two things need to be improved urgently; the toilets and drinking water facilities. Their number and quality need to be given consideration. Keywords: Perceived Quality, tertiary care, pharmacy services, patient satisfaction and outpatients.

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