MEASURING SERVICE QUALITY OF PHARMACIES-A STUDY WITH REFERENCE TO THREE MAJOR INDIAN CITIES

P. Uma Maheswari Devi*, B. Sankara Rao, B. RajaShekhar, N. Udaya Bhaskar

The Pharmacists have a very important role in protecting the health of the customers through proper dispensing of drugs and providing better services. But the errors made in processing prescriptions are growing with the increasing prescriptions. In this scenario we made an attempt to measure the quality of services provided by pharmacists. CFA (Confirmatory Factor analysis) was used and a PHARMQUAL scale with three dimensions-Empathy, Assurance and Reliability and nine items were developed. The relationships between the pharmacists “perceived service quality” and “satisfaction” were also examined. The analysis of data was conducted through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using AMOS (Analysis of Moment Structures). A Sample of 350 chemists from three major Indian cities was purposively selected. The role of organized and unorganized pharmacies was also examined. This study is very useful for the doctors, manufacturers (pharmaceutical companies) and customers to evaluate the role of the pharmacist and identify the deficiencies in the quality of pharmacy practice.