Consumer perception of community pharmacist extended professional services

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Objective To assess the perception of Maltese consumers regarding extended professional services for community pharmacists. Methods The self-administered questionnaire developed by Wirth et al. was formulated into a concise questionnaire consisting of seven Likert scale statements focusing on extended professional services for community pharmacists including; longer pharmacy opening hours, pharmacist accessibility outside pharmacy opening hours, availability of a private consultation area, provision of diagnostic testing, keeping patient medication records, pharmacist–physician collaboration to manage chronic conditions and pharmacist prescribing. The questionnaire was distributed to 824 consumers recruited by random sampling during educational activities organised to promote the role of the community pharmacist in five localities in Malta. The importance given to each statement by the consumers was analysed. Key findings The consumers perceived pharmacist–physician collaboration in the management of chronic conditions (93%) and provision of diagnostic testing (92%) to be the most important extended professional services. Pharmacist prescribing (69%) and pharmacist accessibility outside pharmacy opening hours (68%) were perceived to be the least important. The percentage of consumers who perceived having a private consultation area in the pharmacy, keeping medication records and longer pharmacy opening hours as important was 87%, 83% and 81% respectively. Conclusions Maltese consumers perceive community pharmacist extended professional services as important, particularly pharmacist–physician collaboration in the management of chronic conditions and provision of diagnostic testing.