Client Satisfaction regarding Drug Dispensing Services in Tertiary Public Hospital during COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Client satisfaction is the degree of positive feeling that patients or clients having used a service. It indicates also the gap between quality-of-service expectation and the actual experience of the service provided from the patients’ point of view. Patient satisfaction has become an integral component of the quality of health care services. Objective: This study was conducted to assess the client satisfaction regarding drug dispensing services in tertiary public hospital during COVID-19 pandemic Methods & materials: The study was a cross-sectional study, which was conducted at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh during the period from January to December 2021. The study includedpurposively selected 407patients who were received prescribing drugs according to prescription in selected hospital. Data were collected by face-to-face interview with a pretested, semi- structured questionnaire and data were analyzed by current Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 25 version. Associations of the categorical data were assessed by using Chi-square (x2) test. Prior to data collection, informed written consent was taken from each patient. Results: The study revealed that males (44%) and females (56%) were portion with mean age of 33.71 years. Among 407 respondents, 89.4% (364) were dissatisfied and only 10.6% (43) of the respondents were satisfied with staff explanation on medication side effect, maximum 85% (346) of the respondents were dissatisfied and only 15% (61) of the respondents were satisfied with given counseling to proper storage of medication by the pharmacy staff, 76.9% (313) of the respondents were dissatisfied for attention during drugs supply and only 23.1% (94) of the respondents were satisfied for attention during drugs supply from pharmacy staff. Maximum 70.8% (288) of the respondents were satisfied and only 29.2% (119) of the respondents were dissatisfied for the medication storage of the dispensary. Mostly 98.5% (401) of the respondents were satisfied with labeling and packaging and rest of the 1.5% (6) of the respondents were dissatisfied and 61%, (247) of the respondents were dissatisfied with availability of required medicine and only 39% (160) of the respondents were satisfied on availability of necessary medicine in dispensary. Among 407 respondents, almost all of them around 91.9% (374), of the respondents were satisfied for wearing mask in the COVID-19 pandemic and minimum only 8.1% (33) of the respondents were dissatisfied for wearing mask in the COVID-19, around 91.9% (374) of the respondents were satisfied and only 8.1% (33) of the respondents were dissatisfied for not maintain etiquette of coughing and sneezing courtesy during drug dispensing by another person. The overall satisfactions among the total respondents were, 66.1% (269) respondents satisfied 33.9% (138) of the respondents were dissatisfied for overall satisfaction during drug dispensing. Conclusion: In conclusion, this study showed that the overall mean satisfaction level of clients of the outpatient’s pharmacy was average. Many of the clients described pharmacist as polite and just about half the patients rated the pharmaceutical service as good