Physicians’ perceptions, expectations, and experience with pharmacists at Hamad Medical Corporation in Qatar

Manal Zaidan¹, Rajvir Singh², Mayyada Wazaify³, Linda Tahaineh^4
1Department of Pharmacy, Al-Amal Hospital, ²Medical Research Centre, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar; ³Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Biopharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan; ⁴Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the physicians’ perceptions, and expectations of their experiences with the pharmacists at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) in Qatar.
Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted at HMC between January and March 2006 using a validated questionnaire. The self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 500 physicians who were working at HMC comprising Hamad General Hospital, Women’s Hospital, Rumaila Hospital, Al-Amal Hospital, Al Khor Hospital, and primary health centers. The questionnaire was composed of four parts, investigating the physicians' expectations, experiences, and perceptions of the pharmacists.
Results: A total of 205 questionnaires were completed (response rate 41%). A total of 183 physicians (89%) expected the pharmacist to educate patients about safe and appropriate use of drugs, whereas 118 (57%) expected the pharmacist to be available for health-care team consultation during bedside rounds. The indices of physicians showing how comfortable they were with pharmacists, and their expectations of pharmacists, were 61% and 65%, respectively, whereas the index on experience of physicians with pharmacists was lower (15%).
Conclusions: Physicians were comfortable with pharmacists and had high expectations of pharmacists in performing their duties. However, physicians reported a poor experience with pharmacists, who infrequently informed them about the effectiveness of alternative drugs, patients experiencing problems with prescribed medications, and who took personal responsibility to resolve any drug-related problem.

Keywords: hospital pharmacists, perceptions, expectations, experience, physicians, Qatar