Pharmacy Staffs’ Perceptions and Opinion on the Drive-Through Pharmacy Service During Covid-19 Pandemic at One of the University Teaching Hospitals in Malaysia
Abstract
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic that imposed movement control order, most patient had difficulties in collecting the medication. Therefore, drive-thru pharmacy was perceived as the safer and most convenient option to minimal the infection risks. This study aimed to assess the perception and opinion of the pharmacy staffs about the necessities of drive-thru pharmacy service during COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was conducted in one of the university teaching hospitals in Malaysia, from February to May 2022. The respondents were among staffs in various pharmacy units. The staff perceptions and opinion of drive-thru pharmacy in preventing the spread of infectious diseases in the community was determined using descriptive analysis while the open-ended question was analyzed thematically. All (n=109) respondents positively acknowledge the importance of drive-thru pharmacy in reducing the risk of virus infection. The staff agreed that drive-thru service is helpful for patients who are busy with their daily routine (n=103; 94.5%), reduces patients’ waiting time for picking up their medications and perceived that drive-thru Services are useful for senior citizen or caretaker (n=95; 87.2%). In conclusion, although 89 (82.0%) of the respondents highlighted the importance of drive-thru service especially during the spike of the COVID-19 pandemic, thirteen respondents (12.0%) raised hesitate to agree with the implementation of this service due to issue of manpower and satisfied with the existing pharmacy value added services (PVAS) at the hospital. Therefore, re-evaluation of the needs of drive-thru pharmacy during COVID-19 pandemic based on the patients and caregivers’ perception should be conducted in future