Beyond satisfaction in person-centered pharmacy services

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Pharmacy Practice
• Patient-Centered Care

Background:

• Patient satisfaction is a common metric for assessing community pharmacy services.
• Existing literature on satisfaction measures for service design and patient experience is reviewed.
• Critiques highlight limitations of satisfaction measures in accurately reflecting quality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To discuss alternative methods for evaluating patient experience and quality in patient-centered care.
• To identify limitations of patient satisfaction as a sole assessment tool.
• To introduce patient-reported outcomes measures (PROMs), patient-reported experience measures (PREMs), and human-centered design as superior alternatives.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of patient satisfaction measures in pharmacy.
• Analysis of criticisms regarding satisfaction's accuracy and variability.
• Introduction and explanation of PROMs, PREMs, and human-centered design techniques.

Main Results:

• Patient satisfaction measures can be compromised by factors like low patient expectations and lack of cost.
• Satisfaction can fluctuate with service exposure and individual patient factors.
• PROMs, PREMs, and human-centered design offer more robust evaluation of patient-centered pharmacy services.

Conclusions:

• Patient satisfaction alone is insufficient for accurately assessing patient-centered pharmacy services.
• Alternative methods like PROMs, PREMs, and human-centered design provide more reliable insights.
• Implementation science principles support the adoption of these advanced assessment strategies.