Evaluating an Innovative Concept of Health Care: The “Rede Farmácia de Minas” Programme

Abstract

Introduced in 2008 as an innovative concept of health care, the "Farmácia de Minas" programme aims to increase access and rational use of medicines. The aim of this study is to evaluate user satisfaction with the services provided by a pharmacy of the network, after the city has joined the programme. For this, a descriptive quantitative study was conducted with a random sample of 198 users. The percentage of respondents who found partially or did not find their medicines was 59.9%, however, the perception that the availability of drugs in the SUS became better with the “Farmácia de Minas” programme was 66.7%. The score of the "nice display" part of the unit researched was 4.09, while the score of the "treatment management" part was 3.79, showing the greatest weakness of this service and pointing to the need for more effective action regarding to the pharmaceutical care. It was found that the unavailability of drugs influences negatively the evaluation of satisfaction with the services of the Pharmacy, and compromises the access to medicines, the health quality of the network users and the success of this public policy.