Tan Christine Liang Hoay, Hassali Mohamed Azmi, Saleem Fahad, Shafie Asrul Akmal, Aljadhay Hisham, Gan Vincent B Y
Pharmaceutical Services Division (Pharmacy Practice & Development), Negeri Sembilan State Health Department, Ministry of Health Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.
Discipline of Social & Administrative Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.
Health Expect. 2016 Dec;19(6):1215-1225. doi: 10.1111/hex.12416. Epub 2015 Oct 1.
To improve pharmaceutical care delivery in Malaysia, the Ministry of Health (MOH) had introduced the concept of value added services (VAS). Despite its reported convenience and advantages, VAS utilization rate is low in the country. The study aims to explore patients' understanding, beliefs and expectations towards VAS in Malaysia using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) as the theoretical model.
A qualitative methodology was used whereby face-to-face interviews were conducted with 12 patients who collected partial medicine supplies from government pharmacies. Participants were recruited using purposive and snowball sampling method in the state of Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. Interviews were audio-recorded. Verbatim transcription and thematic content analysis were performed on the data.
Thematic content analysis yielded five major themes: (i) attitudes towards using VAS, (ii) subjective norms, (iii) perceived behavioural control, (iv) lack of knowledge and understanding of VAS and (v) expectations towards VAS.
The interviews explored and informed new information about salient beliefs towards pharmacy VAS. The findings suggest that VAS is still in its infancy and a more robust and effective advertising and marketing campaign is needed to boost the adoption rate. Behavioural attitudes, subjective norms and perceived control elements were discussed and serve as important variables of interest in future study. Expectations towards VAS serve as an important guideline to further improve patient-oriented services.
为改善马来西亚的药学服务，马来西亚卫生部引入了增值服务（VAS）的概念。尽管据报道其具有便利性和优势，但该国增值服务的利用率较低。本研究旨在以计划行为理论（TPB）为理论模型，探讨马来西亚患者对增值服务的理解、信念和期望。
采用定性研究方法，对12名从政府药房领取部分药品的患者进行面对面访谈。在马来西亚森美兰州采用目的抽样和滚雪球抽样方法招募参与者。访谈进行了录音。对数据进行逐字转录和主题内容分析。
主题内容分析得出五个主要主题：（i）对使用增值服务的态度，（ii）主观规范，（iii）感知行为控制，（iv）对增值服务缺乏了解，（v）对增值服务的期望。
访谈探索并提供了有关药房增值服务显著信念的新信息。研究结果表明，增值服务仍处于起步阶段，需要开展更有力、有效的广告和营销活动来提高采用率。讨论了行为态度、主观规范和感知控制因素，这些将作为未来研究中重要的关注变量。对增值服务的期望是进一步改善以患者为导向服务的重要指导方针。
