Journal of Pharmaceutical Care & Health Systems
Open Access

Abstract

Public Perceptions towards Implementation of Dispensing Separation: Results from a Cross Sectional Analysis

Mohamed Azmi Hassali, Fahad Saleem and Hisham Aljadhey

The Malaysian healthcare system has yet to introduce a legislature that implements separation of physicians and pharmacists roles. More recently, a proposal was offered to take the Malaysian populations point of view towards dispensing separation. Therefore, the current study is aimed to assess general public perceptions towards implementation of dispensing separation in the state of Penang, Malaysia. A cross-sectional study design was adopted to conduct the study. A pre-validated questionnaire was offered to 1000 residents in the state of Penang, Malaysia. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data explanation. SPSS® v 22.0 was used for data analysis. The level of statistical significance was taken to be p < 0.05. Sixty-three percent of the respondents were females with Malay being the prevailing ethnic group (n = 527, 52.7%). Seven hundred and sixteen (71.6%) of the respondents reported pharmacists as a reliable source of medicine-related information when compared with physicians provided when diagnosis has been made. Majority of the respondents (n = 876, 87.6%) assured their support towards implementation of dispensing separation in Malaysia. The respondents explained that dispensing separation will result in optimization of patient safety (n = 890, 89.0%), help in to reduce medication error (877, 87.7%) and will reduce the cost of medication (n = 777, 77.7%). There was a significant association reported between supporting future implementation of dispensing separation and all demographic variables (p < 0.05). In addition, the all reported associated were positively and moderate in association (φc ranging from 0.288 – 0.335). Results of the current study presented a strong evidence of public support and benefits of dispensing separation in Malaysia. These findings are of high relevance to the policy makers as it provides an over view of public choice of implementing dispensing separation in Malaysia.