Development and validation of a patient satisfaction questionnaire on pharmaceutical care in community pharmacies

Objective: To develop and validate a rapid administration questionnaire to assess patient satisfaction with the pharmaceutical care (PhC) service in Spanish community pharmacies. Methods: A semi-structured and self-administered questionnaire was designed focused on the cumulative experience of patients with the PhC service. This was reviewed by a panel of 8 experts in 2 rounds. The validation was carried out in community pharmacies that performed the PhC service and agreed to participate. All patients or their caregivers who attended a pharmacy during the study period, and who could read and write, were included. An exploratory factor analysis was performed to assess the validity as evidence of internal structure and reliability was estimated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Results: A total of 8 community pharmacies belonging to 7 provinces of Spain took part and 103 questionnaires were obtained. Factor analysis revealed a single component explaining 33.6% of the total variance. We obtained a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.75. Patients additional comments expressed in 9.7% of the questionnaires were related to emphasising, and thanking for, the care provided by the PhC service. Conclusions: The questionnaire developed has provided evidence of content validity, internal structure validity, and reliability to assess the patient satisfaction with the PhC service in Spanish community pharmacies. (C) 2011 SECA. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved.