Evaluation of community pharmacies services provided to patients suffering from chronic diseases

Evaluation of Community Pharmacies Services Provided to Patients Suffering from Chronic Diseases Authors: Aldona Galiniene, Lina Ganatauskiene The thesis focus is on the pharmaceutical care services that patients suffering from chronic diseases receive from community pharmacies. Services provided by community pharmacies of two major Vilnius areas are analysed in greater detail. Objective: Analysis of accessibility to services provided by community pharmacies in Seskine and Pasilaiciai areas of Vilnius and evaluation of their demand and significance from patient, pharmaceutical specialist and family doctor perspectives. Study also discusses foreign community pharmacies' experience in providing pharmaceutical care services to chronically ill people and assesses the prevalence of chronic diseases in the population. Methodologies: • Theoretical analysis: scientific publications, articles and other literature concerning the services provided by community pharmacies to chronically ill patients are presented. • Empirical analysis: quantitative research through standardized anonymous questionnaires. • Statistical analysis: computer software (SPSS version 20) is used to analyse the data and extract correlations. Frequency distribution, averages, standard deviation and ranges are calculated. Chi-squared attribute homogeneity criteria applied for group comparison. Results: The most common chronic disease are neurological, gastrointestinal, circulatory, endocrine and respiratory disorders. The most common patient group – working adults. The most important and beneficial pharmaceutical care services provided by community pharmacies are: • Measuring of blood pressure (20.8%) • Measuring of glucose concentration in blood (16.3%) • Measuring of cholesterol levels (15.7%) • Calculating the body mass index (BMI) (12.5%) Conclusion: pharmaceutical care services provided by community pharmacies do not meet the expectations of patients suffering from chronic diseases