Community pharmacy roles have increased in the last few decades. They have become more than a dispensing place, also a substantial player in the health care system, with a range of different services. Among the services adopted by community pharmacies recently, in Saudi Arabia, delivery services are particularly clinically oriented services that help with ensuring patient health outcomes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that has studied drug delivery service from the perspective of community pharmacists in Saudi Arabia. In total, 965 community pharmacists participated in this study. Most of the participating pharmacists agreed that drug delivery services would improve patient drug adherence. This result coincides with many previous published studies that were done in countries with drug delivery service, in which, the results showed that delivery service increased drug adherence for treating chronic diseases like diabetes [13,14,15,16,17]. As a logistical service, drug delivery helps patients receive their medication on time, thus, to maintain treatment and have better health indicators. The majority of the surveyed community pharmacists (91%) agreed that proper and necessary consultation could be done remotely. This result matched with many published articles that approved both the importance and the success of remote consultation, especially in pandemic situations like COVID-19, where the most precautionary measures should be taken [18,19,20]. Moreover, 81% of the surveyed pharmacists agreed that home delivery services would largely replace the old tradition of going in person to a pharmacy to receive or refill the prescribed medications. Findings in a recently published article showed that home delivery services and telepharmacies are some of the most important factors that represent a major shift in pharmacy practice, especially in the context of COVID-19 [21]. Further, a study that was conducted in Spain found that the majority of patients used home delivery services since the COVID-19 pandemic started [22]. Studies conducted in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia found that ambulatory pharmacy services were well sustained via home delivery services [23,24]. This shift of pharmacy practice toward home delivery and telepharmacy care may not get slower, even if the COVID-19 pandemic is resolved, since most people, especially elderly patients or those with special needs, or even normal people, may depend more and more on such services, since it is easier and more comfortable than the traditional service. This can be viewed as an innovation and a positive change in pharmacy practice; however, it also represents a challenge to pharmacy personnel in the future and the pharmacy profession should keep advancing its provided services to stay at the frontlines of healthcare. Literature from the Arabic region has highlighted the pros and cons of home drug delivery from the perspectives of both pharmacists and the public. In Jordan, three thirds of community pharmacists surveyed supported the use of home medication delivery [25]. However, half of the respondents in this study think that such a service is suitable for refill prescriptions and not for new prescriptions. One of the benefits identified by pharmacists was that these services decrease congestion at health facilities. Another study from Jordan revealed supportive findings among the public [26]. Participants tend to believe that home delivery of medication is more convenient and accessible than in-store drug refills and most of them believed that such services are more suitable for refill-prescription drugs. A study from Lebanon investigated perceptions of the public regarding home medication delivery [27]. Participants thought that home delivery would negatively affect pharmaceutical care since it makes pharmacists less accessible for answering patient questions and prevents pharmacists from explaining important information about medications. On the other hand, as expected, the majority of the surveyed community pharmacists in our study (72%) said that those pharmacists who prepare and supervise delivery services deserve an extra fee for their services. Only 28% indicated that it is not necessary to have an extra fee. A considerable portion of the surveyed pharmacists (19%) considered that a lack of coordinated and supportive polices is one of the main challenges that may hinder home delivery services. Two recently published articles coincide with such results, which agree that excellent communication and coordination between the different involved sectors in home delivery services is a key factor in ensuring a good service [28,29]. Another 10% of the participated pharmacists said that lack of appropriate training, like communication skills, is the main obstacle, which also coincides with previous published studies’ results [28,29]. Females represented a small proportion of participants. However, according to previous reports this low representation reflects the actual situation of practice at community pharmacy at the time of study. For example, AlRuthia et al., reported that females represented only 14.84% of licensed pharmacy workforce working in different settings of practice in Saudi Arabia [12]. Knowing that the community pharmacy was not the preferred setting for practice among female pharmacists, most were working in hospitals, industry, and regulatory sectors. Almaghaslah and associates also reported that community pharmacists constitute 74.5% of the pharmacy workforce in the private sector in Saudi Arabia and that females account for 0.3% [30]. To our knowledge, this is the first study documenting home drug delivery in Saudi Arabia on a national scope. The strengths of the present study are the relatively large sample size and presence of representation from all regions across Saudi Arabia. A limitation of study was that the regions of Saudi Arabia were not equally represented in the study, with the majority of pharmacists being located in the western region. Another limitation is that rural pharmacists were a minority in the study. This study addressed home drug delivery services from the perspective of community pharmacy staff. The findings represent how respondents perceive the importance and value of such services and do not assess the actual practice. However, they are a good baseline for future studies on the topic.

Improving health care systems to provide high quality and cost-effective healthcare services to treat a needy population could be a challenge, and home drug delivery services could play a part to improve such a healthcare system. Previous studies have shown that home delivery services provided by community pharmacies may play a role in decreasing the costs of the health system, improving medication management, reducing emergency department visits and hospital admissions, and improving the overall quality of life.