ASSESSMENT OF PUBLIC’S SATISFACTION WITH PHARMACEUTICAL CARE QUALITY

The investigation on the public’s satisfaction with pharmaceutical care based on the analysis of questionnaire responses on pharmacy services from the patients at 27 pharmacies in Kharkiv was performed. We developed six evaluation indices for pharmacy services, and showed that the functions most sought by patients were “Attitude of pharmacy/pharmacist” and “Facilities”. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between these pharmacy functions and patient satisfaction by analyzing responses from the same questionnaire survey. Overall satisfaction score with the pharmacy was employed as the dependent variable, while the six factors derived from the 20 items evaluation scale in the questionnaire by factor analysis were used as the independent variables. As a result of analysis, it was found that four variables had a significant positive correlation with public’s satisfaction, two had a significant inverse correlation, and one showed no significant correlation. These results suggest that: attitude of the pharmacists such as general attitude and specialized activities of pharmacy/pharmacist such as supplying information and explanations, and convenience of hours are not only judged to be important by patients, but also influence their satisfaction.

lancing the commercial and professional aspects of their profession [6]. In most countries, including Ukraine, pharmacy is run on a profit basis and is not subsidized by the state. The dual commercial/ professional role of the pharmacist is a subject of continual discussion. Pharmacists taking a business-oriented approach and placing profit before the consumer's needs will perceive giving advice and explanations on the correct use of medications as a waste of time and as not directly involving additional financial remuneration, and will therefore devote less time to patients [3].

ANALYSIS OF RECENT RESEARCH
AND PUBLICATIONS Many studies investigated ethical aspects of the activity of pharmacists and priorities of pharmacies' users in Ukraine [1,2].
Despite the existing publications, the research studies the public's satisfaction with pharmaceutical care quality, as well as the information regarding the customers' use and views of pharmacy services lacking in our country.

IDENTIFICATION OF ASPECTS OF THE PROBLEM UNSOLVED PREVIOUSLY
A key factor in advancing pharmacy practice in pharmacies in Ukraine is the understanding of © Kotvitska А. А., Lobova І. О., 2016 public needs and expectations. Knowledge about public utilization and views. Pharmacy services can assist pharmacists in meeting customers' needs, in enhancing the quality of their services and in improving customer satisfaction.
Greater customer satisfaction, in turn, can be translated into greater loyalty to particular pharmacies and can facilitate the provision of pharmaceutical care through better customer-pharmacist communication.

OBjECTIVE STATEMENT OF THE ARTICLE
The objectives of our study were to assess public's attitudes towards the pharmacist's role and to determine the public's views and satisfaction with pharmaceutical care currently provided in Ukraine.

PRESENTATION OF THE MAIN MATERIAL OF THE RESEARCH
The study was carried out by using questionnaire developed for evaluation of public's satisfaction with pharmacist's role in pharmaceutical care settings. The survey consisted of 20 evaluation items grouped together related to pharmacy services and overall satisfaction with pharmacy use on the questionnaires. They are: Attitude of pharmacy/pharmacist (8 item), Availability of medications (2 items), Availability of special services (2 items), Facilities (3 items), Convenient location (3 items) and Convenient hours (2 items). The questions included in the questionnaire were selected to assess public's satisfaction and perspective about pharmacists' role in the health-care system.
We included the item "overall satisfaction", being located at the end of the questionnaire. This item required respondents to give an overall satisfaction rating out of a possible perfect score of 100.
To analyze the relationship between satisfaction and pharmacy services, a multiple regression analysis was performed. Overall satisfaction with pharmacy was used as the dependent variable, and evaluation scales as the independent variables. The independent variables were determined based on the correlation coefficient between total values of item score for the pharmacy.
The characteristics of the 150 respondents who filled in the pharmacy use satisfaction score in the questionnaire were as follows (Tab. 1). In terms of gender, the group was broken into 74.0 % female and 26.0 % male. Both genders had maximum respondents in the age group 55-64 years, males with 35.9 % (n = 14) and females with 30.6 % (n = 34). Overall, 32 % (n = 48) were 55-64 years old. The majority of participants (68.5 %) were employed. Fig. 1 shows the patient view of the pharmacist. 45 % of respondents perceived pharmacists as health care professionals who had a good balance between health and business matters, and 28 % indicated that pharmacists were more concerned with the business side of their work than with the health of their patients.
In case of any drug-related question or problem, the physician was perceived as the first person to contact by 50 % of respondents; and the pharmacist, by 41 %. Family members and friends were cited by 9 % of respondents.
Tab. 2 summarizes patient expectations about the pharmacist's role. Most of customers agreed that the pharmacist should provide them with the directions of use of medications (93 %), answer their drug-related questions (88 %), check their prescriptions for accuracy (83 %), and advise them about the treatment of minor ailments (79 %); however, more than 70 % of patients didn't expect the pharmacist to monitor their health progress and to perform any health screening.
It is interesting to note that the majority of patients desired communication skills (100 % of respondents), medication knowledge (98.2 %), honesty (87.4 %), professionalism (85.7 %), and understanding of patients' concerns (73.2 %) rather than personal aspects (friendlessness (62.5 %) and attractive pharmacist appearance (44.8 %)) as favorite qualities of community pharmacists (Fig. 2). Communi- Effective pharmacist communication is essential to establish an ongoing pharmacist-patient relationship, and to improve medication use by patients [4]. In addition to communication skills, to embrace the philosophy of pharmaceutical care and to ensure optimal patient outcomes, the pharmacist should have enough therapeutic experience and judgment and should be willing to address patients' needs and concerns. The next stage of the investigation that we carried out was to analyze the relationship between satisfaction and pharmacy services. A multiple regression analysis was performed by using evaluation scores as independent variables. Hence, there was a need to determine the correlation coefficient for each scale. As shown in Tab. 3, no high correlation among analyzed factors was found. Therefore, six independent variables used in multiple regression analysis. Tab. 4 presents the results of multiple regression analysis performed using the overall satisfaction with pharmacy use as a dependent variable, and the 6 independent variables. A significant correlation was observed for 5 variables. A significant inverse relationship was identified between "Availability of special services" and satisfaction score. The other 4 variables have a significant positive correlation, ranked as follows in declining order of influence: "Attitude of pharmacy/pharmacist", "Facilities", "Availability of medications" and "Convenient hours. Of these, "Availability of special services" had a significant inverse relationship. There was no significant relationship between "Convenient location" and satisfaction score.

Fig. 1. Patient survey-respondent view of pharmacists
The other four variables exert a positive influence on satisfaction, and the factor having the largest standard regression coefficient was "Attitude of pharmacy/pharmacist". Therefore to improve pharmacy practice and to successfully implement pharmaceutical care in the pharmacies in Ukraine, efforts may be warranted to address identified issues and to promote the roles of the pharmacist in monitoring drug therapy and in serving as a public drug information resource.

CONCLUSIONS AND PROSPECTS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
The study of assessing public's attitudes toward the pharmacist's role and investigating the customers' views of community pharmacy suggested that the patients had good attitudes and awareness of the roles and responsibilities of the pharmacist, with the exception of monitoring patient drug therapy, performing health screening, and serving as a primary drug information resource. Several issues of concern are related to pharmacy services included: inadequate pharmacist-provided medication counseling, insufficient pharmacist-patient contact time, lack of privacy in the pharmacy, and unsatisfactory pharmacist knowledge level.
Conducted study clarified the factors determining patient satisfaction with the pharmacies they use. The results show that the functions that patients desire most of in a pharmacy are communications with the pharmacist (general attitude and specialized activities of pharmacy/pharmacist such as providing information and explanations of medications) and convenient hours.
The results of multiple regression analysis suggest that such factors as "Attitude of pharmacy/ pharmacist", "Facilities", "Availability of medications" and "Convenient hours" are key, not only as pharmacy functions that customers consciously view as important, but also as factors influencing satisfaction.