Assessment of patient satisfaction with telephone and mail interventions provided by a clinical pharmacy cardiac risk reduction service.

Objective: Kaiser Permanente of Colorado developed a population-based program, the Clinical Pharmacy Cardiac Risk Service (CPCRS), to help close the treatment gap for patients with coronary artery disease. CPCRS provides much of its care via telephone. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of satisfaction among patients in this unique service.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey of patients enrolled in CPCRS for at least 6 months. A sample of patients who met the inclusion criteria were chosen at random to receive the satisfaction survey via mail. Questions pertained to overall satisfaction and satisfaction with individual components of CPCRS. A Likert-type, 5-point scale was used for the majority of the questions. Analyses of the results were primarily descriptive.

Results: Of 1,000 surveys mailed, 491 (49.1%) were returned. The majority of respondents were male (68.5%). The average age of respondents was 71.7 (SD) 9 years. Of those surveyed, 94.6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 92.6%- 96.6%) reported being satisfied (agree or strongly agree) with the care they received for cholesterol management from their CPCRS clinical pharmacy specialist. Respondents reported that their CPCRS clinical pharmacy specialist was easy to contact (83.7%, 95% CI, 80.3%-87.1%), provided timely service (94.8%; 95% CI, 92.8%-96.8%), and addressed all questions or concerns in a way that was easy to understand (85.8%; 95% CI, 82.6%-89.0%). The majority of respondents reported that they were content receiving care over the telephone (86.7%; 95% CI, 83.5%-89.9%) and by mail (90.0%; 95% CI, 87.1%-92.9%).

Conclusion: Overall, survey respondents indicated a high level of satisfaction with the services provided by CPCRS. Based upon patient satisfaction, the results of this survey suggest that the use of telephone and mail systems to provide patient care can allow clinical pharmacy specialists to manage a large number of patients successfully. Health care systems may wish to explore similar methods to address the needs of patients with coronary artery disease.