The power of the patient question: A secret shopper study

• Study used secret shoppers to capture actual OTC consultation by pharmacists.
• Study examined the pharmacist-patient communication for two OTC products (ibuprofen and emergency contraceptives).
• A single general patient question resulted in more information for safe and efficacious use of medications.

ObjectivesTo examine the effect of one standardized patient question on the length, number and type of new topics pharmacists addressed. To explore how community pharmacists counsel secret shoppers on two types of over-the-counter (OTC) medications—ibuprofen (IB) and emergency contraceptives (EC).Methods25 pharmacists from 7 independent, midwestern community pharmacies consented to have secret shoppers purchase an OTC medication and to have their consultations audio-recorded. Following standardized scenarios, 5 secret shoppers audio-recorded 73 encounters. At the end of 36 encounters secret shoppers asked one standard question, “What else should I know before taking this product?” Role Theory informed the study design with apriori hypotheses that topics assessed, topics discussed, and consultation length would vary by the OTC medication (IB or EC) and whether secret shoppers asked a question. Audio-recording coding had high inter-rater reliability (kappa = 0.94).ResultsLength of encounter was significantly associated with patients asking the question (p < 0.05), but not type of OTC medication. On average 1.22 new topics were discussed with a patient question. New topics included information about safe and efficacious use of the OTC’s.ConclusionResults highlight the importance of encouraging patients to ask pharmacists their questions about OTC products for safe use and thorough consultations.