Pharmacy drive-thru service in Jordan: assessing customers' awareness, perceptions and factors affecting the use of this service

Abstract

Abstract Objectives In Jordan, drive-thru pharmacy service has recently been introduced representing a new trend in community pharmacy services. This study aimed to evaluate pharmacy customers' awareness and perceptions towards the drive-thru service to unveil important information regarding such service. Methods A Self-administered questionnaire was used in this cross-sectional study which was conducted in Amman-Jordan between April and August 2017. A Self-administered questionnaire was used to evaluate pharmacy customers' awareness and perceptions towards pharmacy drive-thru services. Factors affecting customers' use of this service was also investigated. Key findings A total of 789 pharmacy customers participated in the current study. Mean age of study participants was 27.7 years (SD = 10.6) and half of them were men (n = 397, 50.4%). Although 26.8% (n = 212) of the customers knew that the drive-thru pharmacy service was newly implemented in Jordanian pharmacies, only 10.9% (n = 86) reported to have used this service. Customers (59.1%) expressed their support for the introduction of this service to pharmacy practice in the country. Certain factors affected customers' use of the drive-thru pharmacy service positively, including male gender, Jordanian nationality, non-single marital status and having children (P-value <0.05). Conclusions This study demonstrated positive customer awareness and perceptions towards the drive-thru pharmacy service. Busy customers seem to use this service more (men being married and having children). Hence, this service seems to be most beneficial to a certain type of customers. However, concerns about poor communication between the pharmacist and the patient represented the main disadvantage of the drive-thru service.