Evaluation of counseling environmental alteration on pharmacy–patient communication qualifications: A case–control study

The closed pharmaceutical counseling room was so hard to be established for most of hospitals in China since limited space in the out-patient lobby, which dramatically affected the qualification of medication consultant. Few reports studied the importance of closed pharmaceutical counseling room construction. To investigate the necessary of closed pharmaceutical counseling room construction in the outpatient lobby. The closed pharmaceutical counseling room was established and equipped with hospital electronic information system, patient education flashes, and we-Chat in web. We collected the pharmaceutical counseling records before and after counseling room establishment and analyzed the results systematically. After the consulting venue transferred to the closed space, methods adopted by pharmacists in patient educations were diversification. Numbers of counseling people were increasing 4 folds after room establishment and questions were transferred from drug information supply to high professional pharmaceutical relation such as the usage of respiratory devices, drug–drug interaction, and so on. The alterations of consultant space provided a powerful platform on security, properly and suitable of patients’ medication usage, keep the medication errors and poor compliance out of the serious consequence, and improve hospital satisfaction. Therefore, it is necessary in outpatient lobby to develop the independent room for medication service.