Introduction:

Private community pharmacies in Costa Rica have a long history. However, developed Pharmaceutical Care services in these health centers are little known and documented, which makes it difficult to determine the importance of these services for society.

Method:

This is an observational, descriptivestudy carried out in the five cities inthe province of San Jose (Costa Rica capital)with the highest number of pharmacies.The study was carried out byapplying a questionnaire to regular usersof the selected pharmacies during 2018.

Results:

A total of 385 surveys were conducted. The analysis of the questionnaires indicates that 60.8% ofusers attend the pharmacy at least once a month. 93% consider that the pharmacist is a professional who transmits confidence and security and 79%indicate that their health can improveif they receive continuous education from the pharmaceutical.

Conclusions:

The results show the need for the development of a Pharmaceutical Care program in the private sphere. Since users consider that, as pharmacies are easily accessible places, their health would improve if they were guided about their treatment on a continuous basis.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )