Patient experience in community pharmacy services: A scoping review

Area of Science:

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

Background:

• The role of community pharmacists is expanding, necessitating a focus on patient experience.
• Patient experience is a key indicator of person-centered care quality in pharmacies.
• The scope of research on patient experience in community pharmacies requires clarification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a scoping review of research on patient experience in community pharmacy settings.
• To explore the extent of studies investigating patient experiences within community pharmacies.
• To identify trends and gaps in the literature concerning patient experience in community pharmacy.

Main Methods:

• Adherence to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines.
• Comprehensive literature search across PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar in October 2024.
• Inclusion of keywords such as "patient-centered," "experience," and "community pharmacy" for literature retrieval.

Main Results:

• Fifteen studies published between 2008 and 2024 met the eligibility criteria from 121 identified records.
• Studies were primarily from Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, utilizing qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methodologies.
• Varied terminology for participants (patients, consumers, customers) and limited use of patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) were noted.

Conclusions:

• Emphasizes the advancement of person-centered care within pharmacy practice.
• Highlights the increasing importance of patient experience in community pharmacy research.
• Recommends developing and implementing context-specific patient-reported experience measures for improved evaluation.