Interaction Exchange in Dispensaries: An Observation on the Chronic Disease Management Program

The number of chronic diseases in Indonesia has increased from year to year. One of the essential elements in managing chronic disease is the provision of adequate drug information. So pharmacists need to have excellent and practical communication skills when delivering drugs to chronic disease patients. This paper presents a process of exchange of interactions between pharmacists and patients in dispensaries. Researchers have collected data by cross-sectional observation in two primary health care. A total of 48 patients were involved in this study. The process of coding the interaction exchange has used the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS). An interesting finding in the study was that most patients only took time from one minute when interacting with staff dispensaries. The mean number of interactions representing the task-focused function did not differ significantly between the two dispensaries during that duration. In contrast to social-emotional communication, the amount of information exchanged has a gap. Based on these findings, we recommend that future studies formulate specific guidelines for pharmacists for treating patients with chronic disease with a short duration.