The use of Value Added Service (VAS) among patients in Outpatient Department of Hospital Queen Elizabeth, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Pharmaceutical Services Division offers the Value Added Services (VAS) through various types of Pharmacy Appointment System (PhAS) including Drug Integrated Dispending System(SPUB) Sistem Pendispensan Ubat Bersepadu, Medicine By Post(UMP) Ubat Melalui Pos 1Malaysia, Drive-Thru Pharmacy and SMS&TAKE(SMS&AMBIL). Each type of VAS has its own speciality and is different from one another in certain aspects. It is believed that patients will choose the service that suites them the most according to the factors affecting their lifestyle. The purpose of this study is to determine and describe the trends and patterns of Value Added Service system used among patients at Hospital Queen Elizabeth Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The VAS system mainly contain four categories, which are Drug Integrated Dispensing System(SPUB),Medication By Post (UMP)service, and Drive Through service and SMS&TAKE(SMS&AMBIL) service.
Value Added Services was created through creativity and innovation of several pharmacists to provide better pharmacy services that benefits both pharmacy staff and patients. This system was specially made for patients with repeated medications to ease the patient to get their medication supply.
The data were collected from the Outpatient department in Hospital Queen Elizabeth(HQE). The first phase of this study focuses on the list of patient who use this system based on each category to examine the total number of patients registered for each services. The list was taken monthly from January 2016 until December 2016. According to the list of patient using VAS services for 12 months, from 9362 of the whole number, SPUB service leads the number with 94.4%, followed by Drive through with 3.52%, SMS&TAKE 1.35%, and lastly UMP with 0. 72%.
The second phase shows the age of patients registered for each of the services in VAS. The age was categorized in group based on age range of patients which include kids, teenager, young adult, adult and old citizen. This technique is to observe which age group tend to use each of the VAS services more often, and as the result, from the data taken 61-100 years old age group used this services more often than the other age group.
The third phase of the study divides patients according to their gender. The research shows that female patients tend to use the SPUB and DRIVE THROUGH service more than male