Knowledge and perspective towards pharmacy Value Added Services (VAS) among outpatients and Hospital Pakar Sultanah Fatimah Muar, Johor

Value added service (VAS) is one of the huge ways to reduce traditional counter services (TCS) for repeated medication. VAS in Hospital Pakar Sultanah Fatimah Muar (HPSF) included Pharmacy Drive Through, Ubat Melalui Pos (UMP), Integrated Drug Dispensing System or sistem pendispensan ubat bersepadu (SPUB) and SMS and Take. The aim of this research is to assess the patient’s knowledge, perspective and expectation towards VAS. A simple random sampling research design will be employed in this study. A series of questionnaires is provided in English and Malay language that previously had been validated from a similar research study. Respondents of a total 360 were chose randomly among the out-patients at HPSF to answer the questionnaires. All the data collected will be analyzed using the IDM Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 16.0 for data output and graphing. The results concluded that more than half of respondents (n=215, 59.72%) aware of VAS. Majority of the respondents (n=242, 67.2%) have a perspective that VAS provide a convenient and time saving service. Almost all respondents (n=325, 90.3%) expect simpler and easier registration procedure if they want to use VAS. More than half of respondents aware the existence of VAS that are olfered by hospital pharmacy and they are interested to use VAS to collect their medication supply in fiiture. This research helps to instill preliminary idea to those who are not aware of VAS in HPSF and are willing to try this service. It can be conclude that majority of out-patients in HPSF have high knowledge, perspective and expectation towards VAS.