Impact of a drug dispensing model at a Community Pharmacy in Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil

Abstract

Although dispensing of medication has been addressed by theoretical models, studies that confirm the impact of this service are still needed. The objective was to evaluate the impact of a new model of medicine dispensing system on patients' medication knowledge, adherence to treatment and satisfaction. One hundred and four patients attending the dispensing service of a community pharmacy between 21 January 2013 and 20 April 2013 were included in this intervention study. The impact of the service on patients' medication knowledge, adherence to treatment and satisfaction was assessed by using validated questionnaires at two time points: at the moment of medication dispensing and 30 days thereafter by telephone contact. Statistical analysis was performed by McNemar's test, and a p<0.05 was set as statistically significant. The number of patients showing insufficient knowledge about medications decreased by 50% (p < 0.05), and the number of those showing sufficient knowledge was three times greater (p < 0.05) after medicine dispensing. A high level of satisfaction was observed. Improvement of medication adherence, however, was not observed. The proposed system model for drug dispensing improved patients' knowledge about medication and satisfaction.

Does drug dispensing improve the health outcomes of patients attending community pharmacies? A systematic review

“…The intervention patterns in this pharmacy are not generalizable; a retrospective data analysis was performed, making it unclear whether the annotations resulted in further activities that increased patient safety; the exact clinical outcome of each individual activity is unknown; data were collected over a 2-month period. Ferreira et al, 2018 [ 57 ] Brazil Pre-post-test design (quasi-experimental a ) 104 patients Patient satisfaction with service. Patients reported a high level of satisfaction towards the dispensing service, which was rated excellent or very good by more than 70 % of the patients.…”

“…The articles reported the following design: cross-sectional ( n = 4) [ 49 , 52 , 55 , 56 ], randomized clinical trials ( n = 4) [ 50 , 51 , 53 , 54 ] and quasi-experimental ( n = 1) [ 57 ]. The study sample was heterogeneous and varied in terms of number of patients (104–210) and community pharmacies (89–97).…”

“…Out of the four studies that evaluated clinical outcomes, two of them were related to the impact of dispensing on the care of patients with asthma [ 50 , 54 ]. The more reported humanistic outcomes were satisfaction ( n = 3) [ 51 , 52 , 57 ] and quality of life ( n = 2) [ 50 , 54 ]. Three economic outcomes were assessed in three studies, and the most frequent outcome was cost-saving ( n = 3) [ 49 , 55 , 56 ].…”

“… Patients’ satisfaction with the drug dispensing service was assessed by an appropriate instrument validated in English and translated into Portuguese (Correr Instrument). Ferreira et al, 2018 [ 57 ] F Final endpoint, I intermediate endpoint, K10 Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, Min%Max lowest (Min) and the highest (Max) value, DRP Drug-related problem …”

“…Regarding cross-sectional studies, two of them (50 %) [ 49 , 52 ] met at least five of the eight evaluated criteria. The quasi-experimental study met five of the nine evaluated criteria[ 57 ]. Only one randomized clinical trial met six of the thirteen criteria evaluated [ 54 ], and the remaining clinical trials met four or fewer criteria [ 50 , 51 , 53 ].…”