# Dispensing of Prescribed Medicines in Swiss Community Pharmacies-Observed Counselling Activities
## 3 Results
### Counselling
#### 3.1.2 Factors Influencing Counselling Provision  
Table 3 presents factors influencing counselling provision at the patient, prescription and provider level. At patient level, new compared to regular customer received more counselling from the pharmacy staff (11.9% vs. 5.0%, \(p\) < 0.001) (Table 3). The type of prescription also influenced the rate of counselling. Significantly more counselling was provided with a first compared to a refill prescription (mean theme counselling ratio 9.6% vs. 1.5%, \(p\) < 0.001), and with prescriptions requiring a pharmaceutical intervention vs. no intervention (7.9% vs. 4.6%, \(p\) < 0.001). At the provider level, pharmacists provided counselling on significantly more themes per PE than pharmacy technicians (3.5 vs. 2.6 themes, \(p\) < 0.05), drugists (3.5 vs. 1.9, \(p\) < 0.05), and apprentices (3.5 vs. 2.3, \(p\) < 0.05). However, no significant difference between pharmacists and pharmacists in training (3.5 vs. 3.2, \(p\) = 0.849) or between pharmacists and a combination of a pharmacist and another staff member (3.5 vs. 4.2, \(p\) = 0.194) was seen. The detection of factors influencing counselling provision allowed the illustration of counselling patterns (Figure 2). Figure 1: Number of themes counselled by the pharmacy staff per prescription encounter (PE) during first (n = 269) and refill PEs (n = 287). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Fist Perception Encounters (a = 2009)**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Retill Perception Encounters (a = 2009)**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**-Value (Fist vs.**} \\ \cline{2-13}  & **Time** & **Time** & **Dhoused** & **Pharmacy** & **Consumer** & **Insilator** & **Time** & **Time** & **Frequency** & **Transilator** & **Scanner** & **Insilator** & **Retill Perception** \\  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Mean Ratio of FEs with at Least**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Mean Counselling**} \\
**Variable 1** & **One Counselling Theme [\%]** & **Variable 2** & **Theme Ratio [\%]** & \(p\)**-value** \\  & **Average \(\pm\) SD** & **Average \(\pm\) SD** & **Average \(\pm\) SD** & **\(p\)**-value** \\ \hline
**Patient** & & & & \\ Regular customer [n = 523] & \(5.0\pm 6.1\) & New customer [n = 33] & \(11.9\pm 6.3\) & **\textless{0.001}** \\ Female patient [n = 337] & \(5.2\pm 6.1\) & Male patient [n = 219] & \(5.8\pm 6.5\) & 0.436 \\ Counselling not refused [n = 408] & \(6.2\pm 6.7\) & Counselling refused [n = 148] & \(3.5\pm 4.6\) & **0.001** \\ Prescription filled by the patient [n = 451] & \(5.1\pm 6.2\) & Prescription filled by the carer [n = 105] & \(6.7\pm 6.7\) & **0.026** \\
**Prescription** & & & & \\ First prescription [n = 269] & \(9.6\pm 6.2\) & Refill prescription [n = 287] & \(1.5\pm 3.1\) & **\textless{0.001}** \\ Ambulatory prescription [n = 468] & \(5.3\pm 6.2\) & Discharge prescription [n = 83] & \(6.7\pm 6.7\) & 0.088 \\ Prescription with interventions [n = 144] & \(7.9\pm 6.6\) & No intervention [n = 412] & \(4.6\pm 6.0\) & **-0.001** \\ Hand written prescription [n = 247] & \(7.5\pm 6.7\) & Printed prescription [n = 117] & \(7.0\pm 6.3\) & 0.599 \\ All medicines directly dispensed [n = 495] & \(5.7\pm 6.4\) & Some medicines picked up [n = 61] & \(3.2\pm 4.6\) & **0.004** \\ \(>\)1 medicine dispensed [n = 290] & \(5.7\pm 5.9\) & 1 medicine dispensed [n = 266] & \(5.2\pm 6.7\) & **0.027** \\ \(>\)1 medicine on prescription [n = 353] & \(5.0\pm 5.8\) & 1 medicine on prescription [n = 182] & \(6.5\pm 7.2\) & 0.129 \\
**Provider of counselling** & & & & \\ Pharmacost [n = 149] & \(6.3\pm 6.6\) & Pharmacy technician [n = 267] & \(5.0\pm 6.1\) & **0.018** \\  & & & & \\  & & & & \\  & & & & \\  &  
Figure 2: Patterns of counselling: Frequency of counselling themes as a function of the factors influencing counselling provision. These factors were selected in terms of significance. The size of the circle represents its frequency with respect to the factors influencing counselling provision.