ABSTRACT
Objective: To present the results of a survey about the Telemedicine outpatients experience and satisfaction of a pharmaceutical care program through Telepharmacy, carried out from hospital pharmacy departments in Spain during COVID-19 Pandemic (ENOPEX survey), and identify differences across regions in Spain. Method(s): An analysis of results of the national survey ENOPEX on outpatient Telepharmacy services during the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, analyzed by autonomous community in Spain. Data was collected in relation to point of delivery;pharmacotherapeutic follow-up;patient's opinion and satisfaction with Telemedicine;confidentiality;future development of pharmaceutical care, through Telepharmacy services;and coordination with the patient care team. Four multilevel regressions were performed to evaluate the differences between Spanish regions on the most relevant variables of the study, using the R version 4.0.3 software. Result(s): A total of 8, 079 interviews were valid, 52.8% of respondents were female, age was 41-65 years in 54.3% of participants;42.7% had been receiving treatment for more than 5 years;42.8% lived 10-50 km from the hospital;the journey to hospital took more than one hour for 60.2% of participants. Globally, 85.7% received medicines at home. However, medicines were delivered at a community pharmacy in some communities, such as Cantabria (95.8%), or at primary care centers as in Castile La Mancha (16.5%). In total, 96.7% of participants were satisfied or very satisfied with Telemedicine pharmaceutical care, through Telepharmacy services, with differences across communities, with users in Andalusia reporting the highest satisfaction (OR = 1.58), and users in Castile-Leon being less satisfied with Telepharmacy services (OR = 0.66). Users in Catalonia are the ones more clearly in favor of Telemedicine pharmaceutical care, through Telepharmacy services as a complementary service, with an OR = 5.85 with respect to other users. The Telemedicine most frequently mentioned advantage was that Telepharmacy services avoided visits, especially in Cantabria (92.5%) and Extremadura (88.4%). Most patients prefer informed delivery of medicines at home when they do not have an appointment at the hospital: total of 75.6 %, from 50.1% of users in Cantabria to 96.3% in Catalonia (p < 0.001). The users less willing to pay for Telepharmacy services were the ones from Castile-Leon and Galicia, with users in Catalonia and Navarra showing higher willingness. Conclusion(s): In general terms, patients were satisfied with Telemedicine pharmaceutical care, through Telepharmacy services during the COVID-19 pandemic, being mostly in favor of maintaining these services to avoid travels. Copyright © 2022 Grupo Aula Medica S.L.. All rights reserved.