Patients' satisfaction towards Value Added Services (VAS) of dispensing medicines at Out-­Patient Pharmacy in Hospital Teluk Intan, Perak

Out-patient Pharmacy Department of Hospital Teluk Intan, Perak, Malaysia has practiced Value Added Services (VAS) of dispensing medicines through various kind of Pharmacy Appointment System (PhAS) which are Integrated Drug Dispensing System!Sistem Pendispensan Ubat Bersepadu (SPUB), Medicines by Post I Malaysia/Ubat Melalui Pas 1 Malaysia (UMPIM), Farmasi Teman Kami (FTK) and Short Message Service (SMS) & Take that implemented by Ministry of Health (MOH). Aim of this study was to assess the satisfactory level on Value Added Service (VAS) among patients at Out-patient Pharmacy Department in Hospital Teluk Intan. Phone interview was conducted and they were asked 20 questions consisting demographics and patients' satisfaction towards VAS. By using stratified random sampling, a total of 120 patients who were using the VAS offered by SPUB (60%), FTK (30%), UMPlM (5%) and SMS & Take (5%) were collected as respondent in this study. All data were analyzed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 18.0. This study revealed 77/120(64%) of VAS consumers satisfied with the provided services. The higher the score of questionnaire, the higher the patients' satisfaction level towards VAS. Many respondents stated that Value Added Services (VAS) of dispensing medicines was a good alternative to enhance their continuous access of medicines and thus better patient compliance and adherence especially for the chronic diseases prescriptions. Information on VAS user's waiting time, cost involved, behaviour aspect amongst pharmacy's staffs and the information given by the staff is at beneficial to be used to improve the quality of medicines dispensing service.