BACKGROUND: Research has shown that consumers prefer a pharmacist who is skilled
in communication and pays particular attention to friendliness, empathy and
attentiveness. Medication management interviews tend to be more time consuming
than other patient-pharmacist interactions. The extra time for these interviews
provides patients with an opportunity to evaluate the quality of interpersonal
care provided by the pharmacist. Patient evaluations of pharmacists may influence
their intentions to use medication management services. In previous studies, a
conceptual model based on information-seeking theory was developed and used to
explain a significant amount of the variation in consumers' and caregivers'
willingness to use Australia's Home Medicines Review (HMR) service.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper was to extend the conceptual model to include
the influence of patients' evaluation of interpersonal care provided. We aimed to
test the hypothesis that patients' perceptions of how well the pharmacist
listened to them during their most recent HMR interview (Listening) would
increase their willingness to re-use HMR (Willingness).
METHODS: Patients (N = 595) who had experienced Australia's Home Medicines Review
(HMR) within the previous 6 months completed questionnaires. Exploratory and
confirmatory factor analyzes were used to validate the measurement scales.
Structural equation modeling was used to test the model.
RESULTS: The structural model provided a reasonable fit to the data and explained
53% of the variation in Willingness. The structural model revealed that Listening
increased patients' perceptions that the HMR provided positive outcomes
(Outcomes) (β = 0.37, P < 0.05) and directly and indirectly increased Willingness
(β = 0.61, P < 0.05).
CONCLUSION: These results suggest that patients' willingness to use a medication
management service in the future is strongly influenced by their perceptions of
how well the pharmacist listened to them during their last medication review
interview. Improving pharmacist listening skills may be explored as a strategy
for improving patient engagement with pharmacy services.