EVALUATION OF PHARMACEUTICAL CARE SERVICES’ QUALITY IN LATVIA: THE CASE STUDY OF “MENESS APTIEKA”

Abstract

The availability of quality pharmaceutical care services is an important precondition for the nation’s welfare, therefore their quality maintenance and regular evaluation is one of the main challenges that pharmacies have to deal with. Based on the previous studies of theoretical fundamentals of service quality, the authors have set the research aim to apply SERVPERF and SERVQUAL methods of service quality evaluation for identifying the quality gaps in “Meness aptieka” pharmaceutical services. Retrospective evaluation of service quality can only partly show if quality is at sufficient or insufficient level, therefore authors recommend service providers to use a combined quality evaluation system which includes both identifying of customer expectations and their real experience, afterwards comparing those evaluations to detect gaps in real performance. The research results showed that the quality of the four surveyed “Meness aptieka” pharmacies’ services in Jurmala is at high level and meets customer expectations. There were few minor quality gaps detected, among which most important was customers’ dissatisfaction with new product promotions in pharmacies, which are perceived rather as aggressive sales than holistic care for customer’s health.