Does power distance in healthcare teams linked to patient satisfaction? A multilevel study of interprofessional care teams in a referral hospital in Indonesia.

BACKGROUND: Interprofessional care teams collaborate to provide care to patients in hospitals to ensure their full recovery. To provide quality patient care, healthcare workers must have a comprehensive understanding of each other's roles and collaborate effectively. Good interpersonal skills are also essential for maintaining cooperative and collaborative relationships, listening, and respecting other team member's values and positions. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of power distance in interprofessional care on patients' satisfaction. METHOD: A quantitative study was conducted in a hospital by using a questionnaire instrument to collect information from patients and members of the interprofessional care team. The respondents included 10 geriatric, 19 palliative, 36 cancer, 8 burn, and 18 medical intermediate care (MIC) teams. Subsequently, a hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to examine whether interprofessional care could significantly predict the relationship between team power distance and patient satisfaction. RESULTS: The measurement of the effect of power distance in interprofessional care among doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and nutritionists on patient satisfaction revealed nonsignificant results. However, the final analysis indicated negative coefficients with regard to power distance for nutritionists (-0.033098), nurses (-0.064912), and pharmacists (-0.006056). These findings indicated that the power distance associated with these professions was linked with decreased patient satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggested that power distance within an interprofessional care team can reduce patient satisfaction.

Knowledge, Perception, and Readiness of Indonesian Pharmacists for the Implementation of Telepharmacy-Based Pharmaceutical Services in Indonesia.

Background: Telepharmacy, a digital technology-driven approach, has emerged as a potential solution to address the challenges posed by this pandemic. Telepharmacy is a method used in pharmaceutical practice where a pharmacist utilizes telecommunications technology to supervise aspects of pharmacy operations or provide patient care services. This study aimed to assess pharmacists' level of knowledge, perception, and readiness toward telepharmacy in Indonesia. Methods: A cross-sectional approach was used in this study, and non-probabilistic purposive sampling technique was used to select respondents who were Indonesian pharmacists. The Telepharmacy Knowledge, Perception, and Readiness questionnaire, translated into Indonesian and administered online, was used to measure the pharmacist's knowledge, perception, and readiness level. Descriptive and inferential data analyses were performed using SPSS version 26, with a p-value of ≤0.05 considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 378 responses were obtained, with 96.83% exhibiting high knowledge and 63.23% showing high readiness for telepharmacy services. Furthermore, 58.20% of respondents had a positive perception of telepharmacy services. The results indicate a significant influence of pharmacist's knowledge and perception on their readiness to implement telepharmacy services in the future practice. Conclusion: Most study participants had sufficient knowledge, positive perceptions, and readiness to implement telepharmacy services in their future pharmaceutical practice. However, they expressed concerns about the potential for an increased workload and the potential lack of incentives associated with the widespread adoption of telepharmacy practice models. Telepharmacy practice models must be included in the training programs that train future's pharmacists in order to ensure that they have the abilities required to offer telepharmacy services.

Application, Benefits, and Limitations of Telepharmacy for Patients with Diabetes in the Outpatient Setting.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, telepharmacy has become increasingly widely used as an alternative to pharmaceutical care by remote pharmacists. Patients with diabetes mellitus are one of the patients who get benefit the most from telepharmacy practices, which allow patients to consult without meeting face to face and minimize the risk of virus transmission. The authors conduct an assessment of the benefits and limitations of using telepharmacy that are used throughout the world and then hopes that they can become a reference in the development of telepharmacy in the future. A total of 23 relevant articles were used for analysis in this narrative review after searching for articles in three sources, including PubMed, Google Scholar and ClinicalTrials.gov, until October 2022. This narrative review shows that telepharmacy plays an important role in improving clinical outcomes, patient therapy adherence and reduce the number of patient visit and hospitalization, but telepharmacy also has limitations in its use related to security and privacy, as well as pharmacist intervention that has not been maximized. However, telepharmacy has great potential to facilitate diabetes mellitus patients in pharmaceutical services.

Role of Pharmacists in the Interprofessional Care Team for Patients with Chronic Diseases.

Chronic diseases are a major health problem and cause of death worldwide. Patients with chronic diseases should be managed by an interprofessional care team consisting of general practitioners, medical specialists, nurses, and pharmacists. However, the roles of pharmacists in this interprofessional care team have not been fully explored. This study, therefore, examined their roles as members of the interprofessional care team in managing patients with chronic diseases. A search in PubMed, Google Scholar, EBSCO, Scopus, and Cochrane Library databases was conducted for research articles that discussed pharmacists, interprofessional healthcare, and chronic diseases. From initial 420 identified articles, a total of 27 articles were included in this study. The interprofessional healthcare team should have a sense of tolerance and belonging among its members, which is reflected in five dimensions: partnership, coordination, cooperation, decision-making, and therapeutic outcomes. The five dimensions are closely related because they support each other in the success of the therapy. The presence of pharmacists in an interprofessional healthcare team has been proven to help facilitate access to primary care and improve patient outcomes. Pharmacists can assist in managing chronic disease conditions by providing drug information to patients and other healthcare providers and by acting as a consultant for treatment-related issues. The pharmacist's role as part of an interprofessional care team reinforces the importance of a collaborative healthcare team in providing clinical services to patients with chronic diseases.