Gap Analysis Between Patients' Expectations and Services
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JRFHHA Gap Analysis between Patients’ Expectations and Services Provided by Pharmacy10.5005/jp-journals-10035-1018 Store of a Tertiary Care Hospital RESEARCH ARTICLE Gap Analysis between Patients’ Expectations and Services Provided by Pharmacy Store of a Tertiary Care Hospital 1Jharna Bajpai, 2Nirmal K Gurbani ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION Pharmacy store of hospital is among one the major revenue In recent years, awareness has risen on how patients perceive generating area of hospital. Its performance can be a vital the quality of their healthcare. Consequently measuring element in the success of any upcoming hospital. Nowadays, not only the availability of prescribed drugs matters but explanation patient satisfaction has become an important tool to gain of dose, frequency and duration of drugs to be taken, behavior of attention and value among the healthcare consumers as well pharmacist and waiting time to get drugs play an important role as competitors. Measuring patient satisfaction encompasses in satisfaction of patients. The pharmacy store of the hospital evaluating patient’s perceptions and determining whether provides more specialized and more time-saving services they felt that their needs met.1 Research in the area of ‘Hospital for patients. It also eases the financial burden on pharmacy users via drug discounts. A cross-sectional comparative study Administration in India’ is still in its infant stage. To men- was conducted on 90 respondents. A self administered pre- tion a few important research works carried out in India, designed, pretested, structured questionnaire was given to a reference can be made to Sreenivas2 who examined why selected respondents on first contact to the pharmacy store the hospital administrator should take patient-satisfaction of the hospital with the aim to study the perception of patients seriously as a measurement. He further explained the meth- and hospital on various parameters. Seventy-one percent respondents appreciated the accessibility to pharmacy. When odology to evaluate the patient satisfaction. The patient segregated by sociodemographic characteristics females satisfaction is the real testimony to the efficiency of hospital showed greater level of satisfaction than males, respondents administration. Satisfaction or dissatisfaction refers to emo- above 50 years of age, respondents who were unmarried, those tional response to the evaluation of services, consumption who had came for a follow-up were most satisfied with services. and experience. As the hospital serves all the members of Eighty-six percent respondents appreciated the politeness in communication by pharmacists. There was some discordance the society, the expectations of the users differ from one between the perception of patients and the perception of hospital individual to another individual, because everyone carries in accessibility to pharmacy. A large number of respondents a particular set of thoughts, feelings and needs. Hence, were satisfied with clarity and brevity of information given by determination of patients’ real feelings is very difficult. It pharmacy staff, the presence of pharmacist, and availability of is the responsibility of the administrator to put himself in prescribed drugs. patient’s shoes (empathy). Patients from certain expecta- Keywords: Patient satisfaction, Pharmacy store, Tertiary tions prior to the visit. Once patients come to the hospital care hospital, Perception of patients, Perception of hospital management. and experience the facilities, they may then become either satisfied or dissatisfied. The concept of patient satisfaction How to cite this article: Bajpai J, Gurbani NK. Gap Analysis is rapidly changing to customer’s delight which means the between Patients’ Expectations and Services Provided by Pharmacy Store of a Tertiary Care Hospital. Int J Res Foundation patient is not only cured of his ailments but is also pleased Hosp Healthc Adm 2014;2(2):73-78. with the amenities provided to him by the organization and Source of support: Nil its staff. The role of manpower does play a very important role in patient satisfaction. A medical institute is a complex Conflict of interest: None organization and every employee directly or indirectly involved in rendering services is important for the patient.3 1Quality Executive, 2Professor The healthcare system is basically a service based industry and customer satisfaction is of the utmost importance just 1Bhagwan Mahaveer Cancer Hospital and Research Center 4 (BMCHRC), Jaipur, Rajasthan, India as in other services-oriented systems. The Maslow’s theory 2Department of Pharmaceutical Management, Institute of of hierarchy of needs is famous theory which says that man Health Management and Research, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India is wanting animal and his motives go on changing. The ful- Corresponding Author: Jharna Bajpai, Quality Executive filled motive no longer remains a motive; once one’s need 59, Devi Path, Near Soni Hospital, JLN Marg, Jaipur-302004 is fulfilled the other takes the place.5 Rajasthan, India, Phone: +918290598300, e-mail: Pharmacy store of the hospital constitutes one of [email protected] the largest revenue generating area of a hospital. The International Journal of Research Foundation of Hospital & Healthcare Administration, July-December 2014;2(2):73-78 73 Jharna Bajpai, Nirmal K Gurbani performance of the pharmacy department can be a vital in the data entry and analysis, therefore sample size was element in the success of a hospital. The high cost of restricted to 90 only. Remaining 1 month was given for medications and drug-related technology, combined with the data compilation, data analysis, drawing conclusions and potential impact of medications and pharmacy services on recommendations. patient-care outcomes and patient safety make it imperative that pharmacy departments perform at the highest level Tools and Techniques possible. However, the increasing complexity and range Respondents were selected by ‘convenient sampling’ tech- of medicines and a greater awareness of medication errors 6 nique. The research tool was a structured, self-administered have facilitated a change toward a patient-centered role. bilingual questionnaire. For the validity and reliability of The pharmacy store provides more specialized and more questionnaire, pre-test on questionnaire was conducted on time-saving services for patients. It also eases the financial 30 patients in the hospital (study site). The Cronbach’s alpha burden on pharmacy users via drug discounts. Aside from was applied for reliability analysis of the questionnaire for the money saved on travel, the pharmaceutical costs may satisfaction and value resulted to be 0.77. According to this also be reduced. The pharmacy store of the hospital benefits result, some questions were rewritten to eliminate ambi- the patients by making available the prescribed drugs, thus guity. Nominal scale and Likert five points scaling was helping the patients to avoid the difficulties in gathering used for measuring the satisfaction level. The rating was drugs from various outside pharmacy stores. As prescribing done as following: preferences are different at different places, the prescribed 5: extremely satisfied, 4: very satisfied, 3: satisfied, 2: medicines may not be available at many places, but is not satisfied, 1: dissatisfied. The difference between 1: dis- definitely available in the pharmacy of the hospital from satisfied and 2: not satisfied is on the basis of: non satisfied where the prescription is generated. leaves open the possibility of eventually being satisfied, As pharmacy is the exit point of hospital, patients wish as some scope is there to achieve satisfaction. Dissatisfied to get the drugs as early as possible to get relief from their implies that they could not be satisfied, a failure to make sufferings. Long waiting time, nonavailability of drugs, them satisfied. If any respondent got confused between ‘not- contributes to dissatisfaction and ultimately the reputation satisfied’ and ‘dissatisfied’, he was explained the difference of the hospital gets tarnished. Nowadays, not only the avail- between the two options. ability of prescribed drugs matters but also the explanation The instrument was given to the patients and patients’ of dose, frequency and duration of the treatment by the attendants on their entry to the pharmacy. The respondents pharmacist, behavior of pharmacist and waiting time to get filled the questionnaire on the basis of their perception and the drugs play an important role in satisfaction of patients. simultaneously another set of questionnaire was being filled Thus, there was a need of an evaluation tool which identifies by the observer who judged the services and pharmacy the gap between the patients’ expectations and the services staff to compare patient satisfaction with our observations, provided by the pharmacy store of the hospital and to sug- as per the parameters finalized by the hospital itself which gest measures to fill the lacunae. The present study aims to are as under: identify gaps between patients’ expectations and services For accessibility to pharmacy: provided by pharmacy of tertiary care hospital and to deter- mine the impact of various sociodemographic factors on the 5: distance should be covered in less than 3 minutes level of satisfaction. 4: distance should be covered in 3 to 5 minutes 3: distance should be covered in 5 to 8 minutes MATERIALS AND METHODS 2: distance should be covered in 8 to 10 minutes 1: distance should be covered