Evaluating the Quality of Community Pharmacy Services in the UAE Using Simulated Patients

الموضوعات

طب

الملخص

Background: The community pharmacies in the UAE have an important function to play in making medicine safe and offering healthcare advice. However, because of variables in the quality of pharmacy services, we need a comprehensive evaluation to determine service gaps and enhance patients' results (Alhomoud et al., 2016). Objective: The aim of this research is to measure the level of quality of pharmacy services provided in United Arab Emirates community pharmacies through the simulated patient (SP) technique. Methods: Stratified sampling of all seven emirates showed different geographic representation. SPs visited community pharmacies and collected data using structured checklists. Five scenarios were prepared to study counselling and dispensing practices in chronic disease, aged care, children's care, pregnancy, and over-the-counter medication. SPs were trained and used a provided checklist right after the visit so that they remembered things appropriately. Data was analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics. Results: The results indicated large gaps in the quality of counselling, particularly in domains dealing with vulnerable patient groups like children, elderly patients, and pregnant women. The pharmacists frequently failed to offer sufficient information regarding the use of medicines, side effects, and safety issues. Correlation analyses demonstrated stability for communication behaviours and identified links with demographic factors like the type and location of pharmacies. In Scenario 1, age group was negatively correlated with C6 (Risk information): r = -0.274, p = 0.010, suggesting that pharmacists provided less risk-related information to older simulated patients. In Scenario 2, dispensing quality (C3) was strongly correlated with risk communication (C4), with r = 0.845 and p < 0.001, suggesting that effective dispensing was closely associated with better communication of medication risks. Scenario 3 showed that pharmacy location was significantly associated with patient demographics, such as age group (r = 0.327, p < 0.001) and sex (r = 0.206, p = 0.038). This suggests that some demographic factors could be contributing to the variation in service quality among locations. In Scenario 4, ownership type of the pharmacy (independent or chain) was significantly related to service quality. Independent pharmacies performed better in communication (C1) (r = 0.244, p = 0.020) and drug safety advice (C5) (r = 0.259, p = 0.020). This reveals the impact of ownership on patient-oriented care. Finally, Scenario 5 demonstrated strong internal consistency among key simulated patient perception constructs. Communication (C1), counselling (C2), and dispensing (C3) were all strongly correlated, with the strongest association between counselling and dispensing (r = 0.901, p < 0.001). This indicates that pharmacists who performed well in one aspect were also likely to perform well in the others. Conclusion: This research identifies critical deficiencies in drug dispensing and counselling practices in community pharmacies in the UAE. The findings highlight the necessity for regulatory reforms, the standardization of practice guidelines, and periodic training programs to improve pharmacy service quality and patient safety throughout the UAE.

روابط وملفات

التعريف والنوع

رقم الوثيقة

f559b8e4-66c0-460e-833f-adb0fd3089a7

رقم العقد

0

نوع الوسائط

Crawler

نوع المحتوى

الرسائل العلمية

صيغة المصدر

رسائل ماجيستير

نوع الملف

pdf text

أسماء الملفات

f559b8e4-66c0-460e-833f-adb0fd3089a7_1.pdf

بيانات النشر

ألقاب المؤلفين

[{"name_ar":"Akram Ashames","title_ar":"اشراف","title_en":"Supervision"},{"name_ar":"Moawia Al Tabakha","title_ar":"اشراف","title_en":"Supervision"},{"name_ar":"Nouf Alhosani ","title_ar":"اعداد","title_en":"Preparation"}]

اللغة

English

المصدر والدورية

اسم المصدر

Evaluating the Quality of Community Pharmacy Services in the UAE Using Simulated Patients

المحتوى والصفحات

عدد الصفحات

0

إشراف وإعداد

الإشراف

Akram Ashames, Moawia Al Tabakha

الإعداد

Nouf Alhosani

الاقتباسات الببليوغرافية