Patients participation in pharmaceutical care consultations in Brazil

Background The effectiveness of pharmaceutical care has already been evidenced in several studies and scenarios; the lack of patient’s consultation has been little explored in the literature. Unprovided care is a missed opportunity to offer care to another individual who needs attention to their health. The need for investigation of missed consultations in a Brazilian pharmaceutical care service arises. Objective To evaluate the participation and characteristics of patients in pharmaceutical care consultations in a university outpatient unit in the Brazilian city of Divinópolis. Methods A descriptive study was carried out from a secondary source of information. The socio-demographic profile of the patients who were absent from the pharmacy consultations from January to December 2017 was outlined. Results Of the 832 scheduled appointments from January to December 2017, 501 were not attended by patients, revealing 60.2% missed consultations. The female gender was predominant, corresponding to 67.8% of the patients. A total of 63.8% of the absentees were over 60 years of age. Most of the patients had two comorbidities (32.5%) and came from an active identification by the Outpatient unit pharmacists (86.60%). Furthermore, the patients who were more absent from the consultations had their primary health care units farther away from the outpatient unit, and this could be one of the causes of the high number of absent patients from the pharmaceutical consultations. Conclusion The lack of participation in patient’s consultations is high. It is necessary to articulate new strategies aimed at reducing absences from consultations, since this is a source of waste of financial resources and opportunities to improve the patients’ health and quality of life.