RESUMO
Visits were made to a total of 511 community pharmacies operating in Riyadh in 1997 and interviews were conducted with the pharmacists-in-charge using a pre-designed questionnaire. The objective of this study was to provide a description of the pharmacy location, size, financial and various operational characteristics. Over 95% of the studied pharmacies were established within the last 20 years at a rate of 30 pharmacies per year. Location analysis revealed that 22.7% and 4.9% of the pharmacies were on main streets and linked to either a primary health care or a shopping center, respectively. The pharmacy area averaged 72.4 +/- 67.3 m[2] and the range for about 80% of the pharmacies was between 33 and 128 m[2]. Financially, pharmacy rent and pharmacist annual salary was about 4.6 and 7% of the total annual sale, respectively. The annual sale for a pharmacy averaged SR 910,352 +/- 800,838. In terms of the pharmacy operation, 57.4% of the pharmacies were independent [group of 3 or less] pharmacies. The number of operation hours was 14.1 +/- 4.9 h daily and the number of pharmacists working in the pharmacy averaged 1.5 +/- 0.66. The pharmacist in-charged is the person responsible for the management of 302[61.1%] of the pharmacies. The rests were managed by the owner [19%], centrally [16.6%] or someone else appointed by the owner [8%]. The number of clients and prescriptions reached a pharmacy in Riyadh everyday were 95 +/- 92.1 and 42.7 +/- 47.9 respectively. In conclusion the study introduce several points relating the way community pharmacy practiced. The number of clients and prescription handled in community pharmacies is large and deserve proper pharmacist-intervention for better pharmaceutical care. The pharmacist in community pharmacies is paid less salary than Saudi pharmacist in the government sectors, and works more hours. Because of that the chance to recruit Saudi pharmacists as an employee is low. Additional studies in the fields of community pharmacy are required for future development of this primary health care sector