Pharmacists Perception of Physicians and Patients Responses towards Suggested Drug Alternative

Objective: This study aims to analyze the perceived responses from physicians and patients towards an alternative drug suggested by pharmacist in a physician prescription and to observe the reasons for rejection from physicians as well as patients.

Methods: A cross sectional study in retail and hospital pharmacists was performed. The data gathered was analyzed through Statistical package for Social sciences software (SPSS v 22) through descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests for association between variables (P<0.05).

Results: A response rate of 87.5% was observed. The response of physicians towards pharmacist suggested alternative was observed high in retail pharmacies i.e. accepted most of the times (>50%) as compared to an acceptance rate of sometimes (25% to 49%) in hospital pharmacies. Similarly an acceptance rate of most of the times (>50%) was observed in patients visiting retail pharmacies as compared to hospital pharmacies i.e. accepted sometimes (25% to 49%). The reasons for physicians low acceptance rate or rejection were; time constraints and physician lack of trust on pharmacists, respectively. Whereas the reasons for patient low rate of acceptance or rejection were; tendency to stick to physicians prescription and patients lack of trust on pharmacists, respectively.

Conclusion: Lack of proper collaboration and trust among the two professions as well as due to more workload and job stress a lower rate of acceptance was observed among physicians and patients.