The use of contextual cues for improving pharmacist consultation services.

The objective of this study was to assess the proportion of patients who initiate consultation or ask questions during consultation with their pharmacist depending upon whether or not they viewed a programmable electronic display (message box) in a community pharmacy environment. Using observation and exit interviews within a modified separate-sample pretest-posttest design, data were collected from a random sample of 192 patients who purchased prescriptions at the study sites. Six months after the message box was installed, patients who reportedly had viewed it were more aggressive seekers of information from their pharmacist.