A cross-sectional assessment of patient satisfaction with pharmacy performance attending a public healthcare institute of Quetta city, Pakistan

The current study aimed to assess patients’ satisfaction with the pharmacy performance of an outpatient pharmacy and its variation with socio-demographic characteristics in Quetta, Pakistan.

Data were collected from 477 patients with a response rate of 97.3%. The mean satisfaction score was 74.47 ± 14.80 (maximum of 105, minimum of 0) indicating overall satisfaction with the pharmacy services. Gender was significantly associated (p < 0.05) with pharmacists being understandable, where males agreed more with the statement compared with their counterparts. The locality was also significantly associated (p < 0.05) with pharmacists being understandable as urban respondents were satisfied with the pharmacist interaction. Educational status was also significantly associated with items (pharmacist knew how to help me with expert advice; pharmacist’s main effort was to improve my health and not to profit as much as possible from me and pharmacist initiated counseling about my prescribed medicine without my having to ask for advice). The post hoc correction for the Kruskal-Wallis analysis revealed that graduates and postgraduates were in agreement on the above-mentioned study items. No significant associations were reported among other study variables.

Patients in the current study were satisfied with pharmacy performance. At the same time, certain concerns about improvements that need attention were highlighted by conducting a thorough study using a mixed-method approach.