Medicines Line and the information it provides – are consumers satisfied?
Introduction: Medicines Line is a national telephone service, providing consumers with independent and accurate information about the safe and effective use of medicines. The service currently captures detailed process data, however to date, no information is available regarding consumer satisfaction with the service, how the information provided to callers is used or how callers suggest the service might improve.
Methods: Over a four week period, permission was sought from all callers to Medicines Line to participate in a follow-up telephone interview. The telephone survey comprised demographic questions, questions about the information provided by the service, what the callers did with the information they were given, and their satisfaction with both the information and the service.
Results: From a total of 478 callers who agreed to be followed up, 303 interviews were completed. The majority of callers were female (81%), resided in QLD (42%) and were aged 25-44 years (37%). Most callers were calling on behalf of themselves (68%) or on behalf of a child, partner or parent (27%).
The purpose of 80% of calls was to seek independent information, reassurance or confirmation about the medicines they were taking. 93% of callers said they had a lot of confidence and trust in the information provided and 96% of callers were ‘very likely or likely’ to recommend the service to others.
79% of callers were ‘very satisfied’ with the overall service and when asked: “How could Medicines Line be improved?” 40% of callers said there were no improvements needed.
Conclusions: Medicines Line provides a valuable service to its callers. There is perceived great trust and confidence in the service and the information provided amongst those who call the service. Further evaluation is needed to obtain feedback from consumers who have never called Medicines Line. It is important to determine the motivators and barriers for use of Medicines Line to identify strategies that will increase uptake.