Evaluation of the current status of the value-added pharmacy services and pharmacists’ attitude in Bulgaria

• Main Authors: Stefan Balkanski, Joana Simeonova, Ivan Gitev, Ilko Getov
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Pensoft Publishers 2019-07-01
• Series: Pharmacia
• Online Access: https://pharmacia.pensoft.net/article/36530/download/pdf/

Value-added pharmacy services (VAPS) are additional services to the traditional pharmacy activities, which do not include dispensing of medicinal products and professional consultation. Over 51% of the community pharmacies in Bulgaria offer VAPS but mainly measuring of blood pressure (67.4%) and blood glucose (12.9%). About 60% of community pharmacists in the country are willing to perform other VAPS. About 70% of them believe that patients would rate VAPS as useful. Younger pharmacists with professional experience less than 5 years (90.9%) tend to believe that VAPS would be positively rated by their patients. The study shows that VAPS different from consultation and dispensing of medicinal products have a potential for development in the community pharmacies in Bulgaria.