Designing a Pharmacy Accreditation Programme to Improve the Quality of Service Delivery in Pharmacies

Abstract

Introduction: Improving service delivery has become a major goal in all healthcare settings. Accreditation can play an important role in improving service delivery, but few studies have been done on the development of pharmacy accreditation models. Aim: To design a pharmacy accreditation programme, develop accreditation models and provide a suitable tool for improving the quality of service delivery in the pharmacy. Materials and Methods: This study was a mixed-method study conducted from March 2019 to December 2020. A scoping review was undertaken for this study. PubMed, Google Scholar, World Health Organisation (WHO) and other related databases (like Web of Pharmacy Accreditation Organisations) were used as sources of databases, used following keywords to search documents according to MeSH terms i.e, health services administration, delivery of healthcare, accreditation and pharmacy. A structural equation modelling method was used. Based on the data extracted from the databases, a questionnaire was designed and was administered of stakeholders. The collected data was analysed using confirmatory factor analysis. Model parameters were estimated using the Full Information Maximum Likelihood (FIML) method. The model was revised on inspection of modification indices and fit statistics and experimented for construct validity, construct reliability and measurement invariance. Results: The findings of this study were the design of a pharmacy accreditation programme that includes five dimensions of quality and safety, management and performance, training and development of human resources, procedures and environmental and equipment factors. The quality and safety dimension with a correlation coefficient of 0.92 had the greatest impact on the accreditation programme, the environmental and equipment factors had the least effect with a correlation coefficient of 0.73. Conclusion: Simultaneous use of valid global models, the views of experts and stakeholders in this model, has provided a powerful and novel tool to improve the performance of pharmacies.