Patient satisfaction with a chronic kidney disease risk assessment service in community pharmacies.

BACKGROUND

Patient satisfaction is an important determinant of the feasibility and sustainability of community pharmacy screening services. However, few studies have evaluated this, with no such study performed for a chronic kidney disease risk assessment service.

OBJECTIVE

The aim was to determine patient satisfaction with a chronic kidney disease risk assessment service performed in community pharmacies.

SETTING

Community pharmacies in the state of Tasmania, Australia.

METHOD

An anonymous nine-item satisfaction survey, with Likert-type scales, was developed following a literature review of existing surveys. Reliability of the nine-item scale was determined using Cronbach's alpha. Patients were asked an additional question on willingness to pay, with choices of amount from $5 to $25. The satisfaction survey was mailed to 389 patients who participated in the chronic kidney disease risk assessment study.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

Patient level of satisfaction with and willingness to pay for the chronic kidney disease service.

RESULTS

Responses from 143 participants were included in the final analysis. Cronbach's alpha for the nine-item satisfaction scale was 0.87. The majority of participants agreed that the time required to undergo the risk assessment process was justified (90.2%); overall, they were satisfied with the chronic kidney disease risk assessment service (90.0%) and they felt comfortable with the pharmacist referring their results to their doctor (88.9%). Of 136 participants who answered the question on willingness to pay, 62.9% indicated that they would pay for the chronic kidney disease service. Of these, 29.2, 25.8 and 19.1% were willing to pay $20, $10 and $5, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Patient satisfaction with the community pharmacy-based chronic kidney disease risk assessment was high. These findings provide support for the implementation of the service within community pharmacy practice.