Objective: To determine whether patients targeted to receive intervention from an asthma management program reported receiving more services and had greater perceived benefit and satisfaction with those services compared with asthma patients not targeted by the program.
Design: Mailed survey.
Setting: Community pharmacy.
Patients: 471 community-based patients receiving asthma medications from 44 intervention pharmacies and 1,164 patients from 46 usual care (control) pharmacies.
Main outcome measures: Five-point agreement scale measuring asthma services received, perceived value of the services, and satisfaction.
Results: Usable surveys were received from 39.0% of intervention patients and 42.4% of controls. There were no statistically significant differences between groups in the frequency of provision of listed services. Approximately 60% of respondents from both groups received written materials on asthma medications and 54% received inhaler counseling; both were rated high for perceived benefit. Fewer than 20% reported being counseled about asthma triggers. Fewer than 5% reported pharmacists talking to physicians on their behalf. General satisfaction with pharmacy services was high (78.2% agree or strongly agree), but not statistically different between groups. More than 65% believed that pharmacists spend enough time counseling patients. Several comments indicated that patients did not expect or ask for information because they were unaware that services were available and/or they had already been counseled by their physician. Responses to the statement "my asthma is better controlled because of help given to me by the pharmacist" were equivocal and not different between groups.
Conclusion: Overall, there were few differences between groups. General satisfaction with pharmacy services is high, but patients' perceived benefit and satisfaction with cognitive services is lower. Increased public awareness of pharmacists' capabilities and a more proactive approach to providing cognitive services is needed.