Level and Factors Influencing the Patient's Satisfaction with the Pharmaceutical Care in Slovakia.

The patients’ satisfaction is an integral component of the provided pharmaceutical care and afactor affecting its quality. This study gives an assessment of the patients´ satisfaction with the pharmaceutical care provided by the community pharmacists in Slovakia and it identifies the factors influencing it. Atotal of 2,844 respondents from 33 community pharmacies in 23 different Slovak towns took part in the first Slovak nationwide survey during the period from October to December 2013. The survey used amodified and validated questionnaire containing 29 items from three dimensions of pharmaceutical care (Managing Therapy, Interpersonal Relationship, General Satisfaction). The results are presented in percentages and by the level of satisfaction within the following range level: positive evaluation (score 1.00 to 2.50), neutral evaluation (score 2.51 to 3.50) and negative evaluation (score 3.51 to 5.00) based on the calculated average scores from the Likert scale, which is used to express the satisfaction of respondents (1 – very satisfied, 2 – satisfied, 3 – neither satisfied, nor dissatisfied, 4 – dissatisfied, 5 – very dissatisfied). The survey showed high patients’ satisfaction with the pharmaceutical care provided by community pharmacists in Slovakia. The evaluation of all three dimensions was positive (scores ranged from 1.85 to 2.24). The proportion of respondents with positive assessments was at the least 65.4% and at the most 86.7%. Interpersonal Relationship was the most positively assessed dimension (score 1.85 ± 0.598; 86.7% of respondents reached positive evaluation, 12.3% neutral and 1.0% negative evaluation) followed by General Satisfaction (score of 2.02 ± 0.643; 71.3% of respondents reached positive evaluation, 26.5% neutral and 2.2% negative evaluation). Managing Therapy was the least positively evaluated dimension (score 2.24 ± 0.704; 65.4% of respondents reached positive evaluation, 31.1% neutral and 3.5% negative evaluation). Age, level of education, number of patronized pharmacies, number of medicines, financial expenses in pharmacies and the region had astatistically significant impact on the evaluation of the patients’ satisfaction in all three dimensions (p < 0.001). Gender had no statistically significant effect on satisfaction rating in either of the monitored dimensions (Managing Therapy p = 0,17; Interpersonal Relationship p = 0.002; General Satisfaction p = 0.022). Long-term use of medicines had no significant effect on satisfaction in Managing Therapy (p = 0.170), either. The evaluation of the patients’ satisfaction requires further improvement and the analysis of the influence of identified factors which can determine it.