Medicine cures and kills people. In some advanced nations, prescription transparency is achieved through the separation of prescribing and dispensing, which further leads to public examination of prescriptions. Such an operation results in a restriction mechanism to prevent misuse and abuse of drugs and to guarantee the safety of consumers. Taiwan initiated the separation of prescribing and dispensing on March 1, 1997; however, most people do not recognize the significance of the system and conclude the issue to be an interest dispute between doctors and pharmacists. In the separation of prescribing and dispensing, disputes over the right of dispensation between doctors and pharmacists are commonly seen, but literatures are rarely found to review from consumers' position. This study plans to investigate consumers' viewpoints in respect of prescription transparency and understand its effect on satisfaction. Consequently, this study would be the benchmark for the government and health care sectors in promoting the separation of prescribing and dispensing. The study found the followings: 1. The discrepancy between satisfaction and attention to drug information is 0.88. Most people are used to nontransparent prescriptions, so such non-transparency does not cause significant dissatisfaction. 2. Among the people interviewed, the prescription transparency service they receive is 100% in academic medical centers, 66% in hospitals, and 23% in clinics. 3. 52.3% of the interviewees pays strong attention to drug information, 31.8% pays attention, 11.4% pays little attention, 2.8% pays very little attention and 1.7% do not pay attention at all. 4. The results show the diversity of demand to prescription transparency. Public displays different recognition to the importance of the list of medications: 82.5% thinks listing medication titles for easy reference. 81.9% considers the list represents a sense of responsibility from doctors and their prescriptions. 65.0% keeps the list for later use or for resolving medical disputes. 35.6% uses the list to enrich knowledge in medication. And 1.1% considers the list insignificant in all aspects. 5. Under the condition of non-transparent prescriptions, the educational level will influence the newly-developed factor in satisfaction. In other words, highly educated people tend to care more about prescription transparency

Abstract This research aims to study the current situation of the community pharmacists¡¦ services, such as the collaboration mode with hospitals and medical institutes corresponding to the ¡§Separation of Prescribing and Dispensing¡¨ (Separation of P&D) in Taiwan and prescription dispensing policies, the service orientation, and the operation results in Kaohsiung City, where the Separation of P&D was implemented as early as March 1997. Furthermore, this research also aims to understand the cognition of the community pharmacists upon Pharmaceutical Services and their service orientation. It was discovered from 67 effective samples that the amount of prescriptions dispensed to those registered National Health Insurance (NHI) pharmacies were still few, hence the current situation of Separation of P&D is not that satisfying. In addition, the amount of prescriptions dispensed to community pharmacies joining the NHI were significantly more than those who did not join. Moreover, as far as for those registered NHI pharmacies collaborating with hospitals and medical institutes are concerned, the opportunity for them to receive prescriptions is far from those registered NHI pharmacies that did not collaborate with hospitals and medical institutes. The amount of prescriptions dispensed has a significant and positive correlation to the increasing of pharmacy business. In light of this, it can be said that the collaboration mode between registered NHI pharmacies and hospitals and medical institutes helps with the implementation of the Separation of P&D. The cognition of pharmacist¡¦s practicing can be divided into five categories according to factor analysis, and they are; ¡§Health Maintaining¡¨, ¡§Health Enhancing¡¨, ¡§Pharmaceutical Professional Service¡¨, ¡§Pharmaceuticals Management ¡¨, and ¡§Specialists Consultation¡¨. This research discovered that when the practicing credential is a pharmacist instead of pharmaceutical student, the service cognition on health maintaining, health enhancing, pharmaceutical professional service, and specialist¡¦s consultation were significantly different. The cognition of a pharmacist upon health enhancing and pharmaceuticals control showed significant and positive correlation to his/her business volume. Although the Separation of P&D has been implemented for over six years, and most of the regions in this country have conformed to the P&D separation regulations and the business has been carried out, the outcomes have not met the expectation, and the medicine circle alone cannot solve such problem. It needs a comprehensive consideration and review to effectively implement the existing policies.