Comparing Patient Satisfaction with Automated Drug Dispensing System and Traditional Drug Dispensing System: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Introduction: The adoption of automated drug dispensing systems (ADDS) in hospital pharmacies is a global trend, driven by its potential to reduce dispensing errors, minimize prescription filling time, and ultimately, improve patient care services. However, a significant research gap exists in the field, as a comprehensive assessment of patient satisfaction with ADDS is currently lacking. This study, with its comprehensive approach, aims to fill this gap by comparing patient satisfaction between hospital pharmacies implementing ADDS and traditional drug dispensing systems (TDDS).

Patients and methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted in hospitals adopting ADDS and TDDS. All the outpatients aged 18 or above who visited the pharmacy were included, and severely ill patients were excluded from the study. A 17-item, 5-point Likert scale questionnaire assessed the participant's satisfaction. The questionnaire has four domains: pharmacy administration, dispensing practice, patient education, and dispensing system.

Results: The demographics of the study participants were normally distributed between ADDS and TDDS according to chi-square analysis. The mean participant satisfaction was significantly (P<0.05) higher in ADDS than in TDDS regarding all the items of dispensing practice and dispensing system domains. Three items related to the pharmacy administration domain showed significant participant satisfaction with ADDS. However, the participants' satisfaction showed no significant difference (p=0.176) between ADDS and TDDS in terms of the cleanliness of the pharmacy. Also, the participant's satisfaction between ADDS and TDDS was not statistically significant regarding the pharmacist's explanation of the side effects (p=0.850) and provision of all necessary information to the patient (p=0.061) in the patient education domain.

Conclusion: Patient satisfaction was higher in the ADDS participants than in TDDS regarding pharmacy administration, patient education, dispensing practice, and systems. However, pharmacists in ADDS need to be motivated to transfer the advantages of ADDS to patient care, including comprehensive patient education, particularly on side effects.