Study on cardiac counselling in cardiology ward by pharmacists in University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC)

Myocardial infarction (MI) is one of the most dramatic illnesses that can afflict patients and also one of the leading causes of death in Malaysia. Since MI becomes a chronic disease in Malaysia, University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) has incorporated a cardiac counseling for cardiac patients. So, it is our interest to study the impact of cardiac counseling on patient outcomes. Such evaluation should lead to improve patients' knowledge thus reducing the recurrence of MI. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of cardiac counseling by pharmacist in the cardiology ward in UMMC based on patients' understanding and satisfaction. 100 patients with post MI who joined the cardiac counseling were distributed with questionnaires. The counseling is held in the 4U conference room on every Thursday from 10.30 am to 12.00 pm. In order to measure patients' satisfaction, a question based on basic information on medicines was used. Net Promoter Score (NPS) was used to measure patients' satisfaction. The data obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed using the SPSS 17.0 software. On the other hand, patients' satisfactions were analyzed using NPS. Patients' understandings were evaluated based on the percentage of "Correct" and "Wrong" answers and patients' individual score. For percentage correct and wrong, majority of patients scored more than 80% correct. For patient's individual score, there were 78 patients scored between 80%-100%, 18 patients scored 60%-80%, 2 patients scored between 40%-60% and 20%-40% and none of the patients scored below 20%. Based on patients' individual score, it shows that majority of patients have good understanding after counseling session. From the NPS calculation, 56% of the patients will recommend this service to others. It showed that the patients are satisfied with the service. In conclusion, as indicated in the study results, it shows that patients have good understanding and satisfied with the counseling service. This proved that the counseling is effective.