Desirable Pharmaceutical Care Services in Thai Traditional Medical Cannabis Clinic: A Discrete Choice Experiment

Abstract

Objective: To study the attributes of pharmaceutical services in Thai traditional medical cannabis clinic (TTMCC) that the patients were satisfied with. Method: The researcher interviewed 20 patients at Udonthani Cancer Hospital to determine the attributes related to the decision to use TTMCC services. Subsequently, the attributes were used to design a questionnaire as a tool for discrete choice experiment (DCE) using a packaged program. A pilot study of 30 patients was conducted to determine the coefficients of each attribute for developing the questionnaire for DCE in the main study. The participants were selected by accidental sampling. The study analyzed data from 200 inpatients at Udonthani Cancer Hospital passing the test for internal validity, comprising 170 outpatients and 30 inpatients. Results: Data from the interview revealed four attributes related to the use of TTMCC services including privacy in receiving services, days and times of service provision from the clinic, time for pharmacist consultation and channel to contact pharmacists. The main study found the volunteers were interested in receiving services from the TTMCC and all 4 attributes had a statistically significant effect on the service use at 0.05 level. The volunteers had the highest satisfaction with the 20-minute consultation time with the pharmacist, followed by using phone call or LINE application to contact a pharmacist when the patients needed a consultation or reporting the problem, receiving services individually, and the clinic should be open every day and during office hours. Conclusion: Patients at Udonthani Cancer Hospital were interested in receiving pharmaceutical services in the TTMCC. Relevant party could apply attributes found in the study to develop a service model in TTMCC that is desirable from a patient perspective.