Assessment of the Oral Contraceptive Flowchart at Community Pharmacies in Phasi Charoen District, Bangkok

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the oral contraceptive pill (OCP) flowchart in community pharmacy regarding 1) the advices of oral contraceptives provided with the use of the OCP flowchart 2) opinion of community pharmacists on the OCP flowchart and 3) satisfaction of customers toward the advices based on the OCP flowchart. Method: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, data were collected from 13 pharmacists working in 13 community pharmacies in Phasi Charoen, Bangkok and 390 customers (30 customers from each pharmacy) between 23 November 2016 and 23 January 2017. The instruments were questionnaires, customer collection form and structured interview questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were employed. Results: Community pharmacist provided 580 advice topics on oral contraceptive use for 390 customers. Majority of the customers received one advice (71.79%). The most provided advice topic was the management of OCP-related side effects (180 of 580 advices, or 31.00%). All community pharmacists agreed that using the OCP flowchart in drugstore could help them provide OCP advice more effectively. However, before actual implementation, the OCP flowchart needed some improvement including general layout and certain content to suit the context of community pharmacy. It was found that the customers had the highest satisfaction towards the advice based on the OCP flowchart (a mean score of 4.53 of 5 points). Conclusion: Oral contraceptive flowchart was useful for the community pharmacists and customers. The customer had the highest satisfaction toward the advices based on the flowchart. Keywords: assessment, oral contraceptive flowchart, community pharmacy, drugstore, satisfaction