Patient satisfaction with a chronic kidney disease risk assessment service in community pharmacies.

BACKGROUND: Patient satisfaction is an important determinant of the feasibility and sustainability of community pharmacy screening services. However, few studies have evaluated this, with no such study performed for a chronic kidney disease risk assessment service.

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to determine patient satisfaction with a chronic kidney disease risk assessment service performed in community pharmacies.

SETTING: Community pharmacies in the state of Tasmania, Australia.

METHOD: An anonymous nine-item satisfaction survey, with Likert-type scales, was developed following a literature review of existing surveys. Reliability of the nine-item scale was determined using Cronbach's alpha. Patients were asked an additional question on willingness to pay, with choices of amount from $5 to $25. The satisfaction survey was mailed to 389 patients who participated in the chronic kidney disease risk assessment study.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Patient level of satisfaction with and willingness to pay for the chronic kidney disease service.

RESULTS: Responses from 143 participants were included in the final analysis. Cronbach's alpha for the nine-item satisfaction scale was 0.87. The majority of participants agreed that the time required to undergo the risk assessment process was justified (90.2%); overall, they were satisfied with the chronic kidney disease risk assessment service (90.0%) and they felt comfortable with the pharmacist referring their results to their doctor (88.9%). Of 136 participants who answered the question on willingness to pay, 62.9% indicated that they would pay for the chronic kidney disease service. Of these, 29.2, 25.8 and 19.1% were willing to pay $20, $10 and $5, respectively.

CONCLUSION: Patient satisfaction with the community pharmacy-based chronic kidney disease risk assessment was high. These findings provide support for the implementation of the service within community pharmacy practice.