Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process Indicators in Community Pharmacies in Shiraz: The First Experiences from Iran

Introduction: Pharmacy as an inseparable part of healthcare system, plays an essential role in providing assistance to patients. Since, the Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process (PPCP) in Iran is unknown, this study was conducted to evaluate the professional role of pharmacists in healthcare system in Iran. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study was designed in two parts, pharmacists (n=121) and patients referred to the pharmacies (n=479) in Shiraz during Oct 2017 till Jun 2018. We developed a questionnaire for collecting data about the PPCP, divided into two separate sections; one for pharmacists and another one for patients. One of the PPCP dimension is Pharmacist’s patient care. In PPCP the dimension, good, moderate, and weak classes of pharmacists or patients were determined based on achieving ≥75%, 50%-75%, and <50% of the dimensions total score, respectively. Results: The pharmacist s age range was 23-76 years (mean age: 40.61±12.85 years). Their approach to PPCP was good (43.8%), moderate PPCP was about 52%, and just 4% had a weak PPCP. Patient’s response to PPCP was 11.2% good, 50.7% moderate and 35.6% weak. Discussion: Pharmacist care provided direct heath care effects across different patient outcomes, health care framework, and disease states. Evaluating Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process with a newly-validated questionnaire provides information on patients’ satisfaction and pharmacist’ view with all dimensions of pharmacy patient care process. Conclusion: The instrument may be useful to practicing pharmacists, but it should be used cautiously until it is tested among clients of pharmacies known to provide all levels of pharmacy care within pharmacy stores. Key words: Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process, Community Pharmacy, Pharmacoepidemiology References: 1. Borthwick M, Barton G, Bourne RS, McKenzie C. Critical care pharmacy workforce: UK deployment and characteristics in 2015. Int J Pharm Pract. 2018;26(4):325-333. 2. Odedina FT, Segal R. Behavioral pharmaceutical care scale for measuring pharmacists’ activities. Am J Heal Pharm. 1996;53(8):855-864. 3. Sabour S, Peymani P, Karimzadeh I, et al. The Importance of Pharmacoepidemiology in Iran. Soc Pharm J. 2016;1(1). -

کلیدواژه ها:

Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process ، Community Pharmacy ، Pharmacoepidemiology