Patient perspectives on provision of drug information services in Japan

Today pharmacists provide indispensable drug information to patients, however, few studies have examined the kind of information that patients want, or their satisfaction with pharmacists' advice. Therefore, we have examined a variety of factors, including individual patient characteristics, in order to identify ways to provide useful and appropriate drug information on an individual basis. In short, the aim of this study was to develop a drug information service that addresses patient needs. A prospective survey of patient satisfaction with the level of care provided by pharmacists, before and after a telephone counseling session, was performed over a 9month period (2000-2001). Along with satisfaction ratings, the content of the interviews was assessed, along with patient characteristics. Correspondence analysis was used to classify the content of the consultations, and cluster analysis was performed to classify caller characteristics. In total, 2022 people were counseled. It should be noted that, on occasion, family members were interviewed instead of the patients themselves. The average counseling session was 11.5 minutes (n=1876). Patients expressing the least dissatisfaction prior to counseling tended to have the highest satisfaction levels after counseling. Almost all patients were satisfied with the counseling they received. An association was found between levels of pre-counseling dissatisfaction and time spent counseling patients over the telephone. No dimensions of high inertia were identified by correspondence analysis of consultation content and patient characteristics (n=1667), however, questions regarding "efficacy and indications", "dosages and administration", "anxiety of adverse events", "realization of adverse events", and "interactions" were deemed similar by correspondence analysis. This study shows that patient perceptions regarding drug information services differ from those of pharmacists. Furthermore, several subtypes of patients were identified, based on their responsiveness to counseling. Pharmacists should take this into consideration when standing face-to-face with patients in the setting of their pharmacy practice.