| The aims of this research were to determine the level of satisfaction with pharmacy services among enrollees of a managed care organization, compare the level of satisfaction between mail pharmacy and traditional pharmacy patrons, and evaluate the relationship between satisfaction with pharmacy services and health status.;Data was collected via telephone interviews with 1,362 enrollees of the managed care organization. The overall response rate was 65%. Satisfaction was measured using previously developed items for traditional pharmacy services, and newly developed, parallel items for mail pharmacy services. Scores were calculated for hypothesized multi-item dimensions of satisfaction. Health status was measured using the physical and mental health composite scores of the SF-12 Health Survey. Satisfaction with pharmacy services was compared between patron groups using ANOVA and ANCOVA models. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to evaluate the dimensional structure of satisfaction with pharmacy services and the relationship between satisfaction with pharmacy services and health status.;The results indicated that mail pharmacy patrons were more satisfied than traditional pharmacy patrons with their pharmacy services in general, and specifically with the financial aspects and technical quality of those services. When the comparisons were adjusted for general satisfaction with medical care and mental health status, mail pharmacy patrons still had greater levels of general satisfaction with pharmacy services. However, when these covariates were included in the comparison of satisfaction with financial aspects and technical quality of pharmacy services, dimension scores between the two patron groups were not significantly different.;Internal consistency reliability coefficients for the multi-item dimensions of satisfaction were in the range of 0.53 to 0.77, with the exception of the Written Information dimension for mail pharmacy service, where the alpha coefficient was 0.37. A positive correlation between the dimension scores for general satisfaction with pharmacy services and general satisfaction with medical care lends support to the construct validity of the measurements.;Additionally, it was concluded that, as expected, general satisfaction with pharmacy services was positively correlated with mental health status, but there was no significant relationship between physical health and satisfaction with pharmacy services. |
