Assessment of patient care indicators at community pharmacies in Bandung City, Indonesia.

Community pharmacies supply medications; therefore are involved in the patient care process. The objective of this study was to study the quality of patient care given by these pharmacies. We conducted a cross sectional study of 13 community pharmacies in Bandung City, Indonesia. Data collected were patient care indicators whose standard is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO). These were assessed by observing 1961 subjects who presented to the studied pharmacies to receive their medication. The average dispensing time was 62 seconds. Ninety-six percent of the prescribed medicine was dispensed correctly and 99% of the prescribed medication was sufficiently labeled. Only 88% of patients were able to repeat the correct dosage regimen of their prescribed medicines. Although the average dispensing time was greater than the recommended 60 seconds, the dispensing time ranged from 3 to 435 seconds. Greater attention should be focused on making sure the patient understands the dosage regimen correctly to ensure patient compliance with the correct regimen.