Inpatient satisfaction with TCM medication counseling services provided by pharmacists

BackgroundTCM has been widely used to manage health around the world. Integrating TCM medication and western medicine into health care system is supported by WHO. The practices of integration mainly are contingent on the levels of physicians and pharmacists who have been trained in both. Integrating pharmacists into primary care practices is becoming increasingly recognized as a strategy to manage the complex medication needs. This questionnaire survey examined the satisfaction of patients with pharmacists directed interventions in TCM medication, health education and counseling services.MethodsA total of 60 inpatients receiving TCM medication integrated into conventional treatment were enrolled in the Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital from July 2009 to June 2010. A questionnaire was developed for evaluating general satisfaction with the provision by the pharmacist and pharmacy services. A five-point Likert rating scale was used before and after (pre-test and post-test) pharmacist interventions. Questionnaire responses were analyzed using SPSS statistical software package.ResultsThe 60 participants consisted of patients themselves (52%), family members of patients (38%) and caregivers (10%). Response rate to the survey was 100%. The majority of respondents were female (68.3%), aged between 41 and 60 years (61.7%). The pre-test/post-test changes in satisfaction with pharmacist interventions were significantly different for 8 out of the 13 items.ConclusionsRespondents were generally satisfied with pharmacist interventions as indicated by an overall average score of integrated outcomes effectiveness on pharmacist interventions greater than 4.0. Future studies on the effectiveness of pharmacist interventions should provide integrated outcome assessments.