Profile of glibenclamide prescription services at pharmacies in Nagan Raya: A simulated patient study

Zarini Zarini (Undergraduate Program for Clinical Pharmacy, Universitas Prima Indonesia)
Ermi Girsang (Department of Public Health, Universitas Prima Indonesia)

Buletin Kedokteran dan Kesehatan Prima
Vol. 5 No. 2 (2026): September (in press)

Background: Prescription service in pharmacies involves two stages: prescription screening by pharmacists (administrative, pharmaceutical, and clinical requirements) and drug preparation (compounding, labeling, packaging, dispensing, drug information, counseling, and monitoring). The goal is to ensure that dispensed drugs are correct administratively, pharmaceutically, and clinically. This study aimed to investigate the profile of glibenclamide prescription services at pharmacies in Nagan Raya. Method: A descriptive study was conducted using a simulated patient method. Ninety pharmacies were selected by simple random sampling. The researcher acted as a patient's family member visiting pharmacies to obtain glibenclamide with a prescription. Four instruments (prescription, scenario, protocol, and checklist) were validated and tested for reliability. After each visit, the researcher recorded information obtained from pharmacy staff into the checklist. Results: Of 90 pharmacies, 85 (94.4%) had the prescribed drug available. Information asked from patients included: for whom the drug was intended (7.1%), patient address (18.8%), patient phone number (4.7%), information already given by the doctor (1.2%), previous use (2.4%), and whether the patient knew how to use the drug (1.2%). No pharmacy asked about patient age, symptoms, symptom duration, prior actions, therapy goals, other medications, or allergy history. On average, only 0.4 of 13 possible assessment questions were asked. Drug information provided included: frequency of use (64.7%), amount per use (30.6%), timing of use (15.3%), drug name (4.7%), indication (4.7%), total amount (2.4%), adverse effects (1.2%), and adverse effect symptoms (1.2%). On average, only 1.2 of 16 possible information items were provided. Labels were given by 65.9% of pharmacies. Conclusion: Pharmacy staff performance in glibenclamide prescription services was low across information gathering, drug information provision, and labeling. Improvement is urgently needed.