For Immediate Release — Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Wilson Health Information finds Independent Pharmacies Highest Rated in Customer Satisfaction
NEW HOPE, PA – April 30, 2008 Wilson Health Information, a leading consumer insight firm, finds that for the eight year in a row, independent pharmacy customers rate their pharmacies highest in overall pharmacy customer satisfaction nationally according to the newly available 2008 WilsonRx® Pharmacy Satisfaction Survey. The WilsonRx® healthcare survey is the largest of its kind and is based on responses from 34,454 pharmacy customers throughout the Continental United States. National, regional, state market reports and promotional licenses are available for sale.
Figure 1 – 2008 WilsonRx® Pharmacy Market Areas
“We’ve known for years that customers of independently owned pharmacies are more highly satisfied with their pharmacy than customers of all other store type pharmacies. One reason is that customers of independents have a closer relationship with their pharmacists than customers of other store types. Further, cooperative/franchise affiliated pharmacy customers are more highly rated as a group than non-affiliated independent and other store type pharmacies” said third generation pharmacist, Jim Wilson, President of Wilson Health Information. “Unlike other retail pharmacy surveys which rely on online methodologies, our survey continues to be fielded via a written questionnaire, which we feel gives us superior coverage of the full retail pharmacy universe which consists of independently owned, retail chain drug, food store, mass merchant, mail order and clinic based pharmacies. Independent pharmacy customers tend to be older, have lower incomes and are less likely to have access to computers and respond to online surveys.”
Pharmacy Satisfaction ratings among the various types of pharmacies, including independently owned, franchise and cooperative affiliated groups of independently owned pharmacies will be released shortly. “One thing that makes us unique in measuring satisfaction, is that we take the time to match the names of independently owned pharmacies with the lists of pharmacy franchises and cooperative buying groups and report total measures, said Wilson.” Ratings are made based on overall satisfaction scores as well as intent to return to the pharmacy to fill and refill prescriptions as well as the likelihood of recommending the pharmacy to a friend or relative to fill prescriptions. For each pharmacy, there are also more than 48 separate importance and satisfaction ratings as well as a weighted satisfaction index of all 48 measures covering pharmacy store services, professional, pricing and insurance, convenience and website services.
Figure 2 – Trended Overall Satisfaction with Pharmacy
Nationally, pharmacies in the New England Census Region receive the highest satisfaction. Ohio pharmacy customers are the most satisfied overall, followed by pharmacy customers in North Dakota and Alabama. Pharmacy customers in the Washington D.C. market continue to be the most dissatisfied among all 49 markets measured. “It also so happens that pharmacy customers in the DC market are some of the least likely to use independent pharmacies, said Wilson.”
The WilsonRx® survey measures satisfaction among members of Health Insurance companies, Pharmacy Benefit Management companies and Medicare Part D plans. These satisfaction results will be released following the pharmacy rating results.
WilsonRx® specializes in healthcare and its time proven mail survey methodology is nationally representative and uniquely able to represent the opinions of retail pharmacy customers; who tend to be older, have lower incomes, less computer access and therefore less likely to respond to online surveys. Wilson Health Information, LLC, is an independent, healthcare consumer research company. For more information, visit www.wilsonrx.com, or call Jim Wilson at 215-862-4581.
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