Pharmacists Perception of Physicians and Patients Responses towards Suggested Drug Alternative
Fatima Abdullatif Al-Qanbar
College of Clinical Pharmacy, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam 31441, Saudi Arabia.
Rizwan Ahmad *
Department of Natural Products and Alternative Medicines, College of Clinical Pharmacy, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam 31441, Saudi Arabia.
Atta Abbas Naqvi
Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Clinical Pharmacy, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam 31441, Saudi Arabia.
Niyaz Ahmad
Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Clinical Pharmacy, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam 31441, Saudi Arabia.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Objective: This study aims to analyze the perceived responses from physicians and patients towards an alternative drug suggested by pharmacist in a physician prescription and to observe the reasons for rejection from physicians as well as patients.
Methods: A cross sectional study in retail and hospital pharmacists was performed. The data gathered was analyzed through Statistical package for Social sciences software (SPSS v 22) through descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests for association between variables (P<0.05).
Results: A response rate of 87.5% was observed. The response of physicians towards pharmacist suggested alternative was observed high in retail pharmacies i.e. accepted most of the times (>50%) as compared to an acceptance rate of sometimes (25% to 49%) in hospital pharmacies. Similarly an acceptance rate of most of the times (>50%) was observed in patients visiting retail pharmacies as compared to hospital pharmacies i.e. accepted sometimes (25% to 49%). The reasons for physicians low acceptance rate or rejection were; time constraints and physician lack of trust on pharmacists, respectively. Whereas the reasons for patient low rate of acceptance or rejection were; tendency to stick to physicians prescription and patients lack of trust on pharmacists, respectively.
Conclusion: Lack of proper collaboration and trust among the two professions as well as due to more workload and job stress a lower rate of acceptance was observed among physicians and patients.
Keywords: Acceptance rate, patients, physicians, reason rejection, suggested alternative