Background and Objective:  Children with common illnesses presenting at community pharmacies may have more serious conditions. Patient interviews can identify these problems and this study aimed to develop a checklist to help community pharmacists identify and refer children with serious conditions.

Method:  A questionnaire based on the Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses concept of the World Health Organization was developed and assessed using the Delphi technique by a panel of pediatricians across Thailand. The questionnaire contained questions related to the clinical manifestations of fever, cough, runny nose, vomiting and diarrhea. Respondents assessed the quality of each question on a scale of 1 to 5 and mean, mode and inter quartile range (IQR) were calculated. Items with a mean of not less than 4 out of 5 points and an IQR between 0 – 1.5 were chosen to construct the checklists.

Result: For patients presenting with fever, 8 questions and 10 signs or symptoms that indicate referral were identified. Similarly, 10 questions and 8 signs and symptoms were identified for patients with cough, 7 questions and 3 signs and symptoms for patients with runny nose, 7 questions and 7 signs and symptoms for patients with vomiting and 9 questions and 7 signs and symptoms were identified for patients with diarrhea.

Conclusion: The checklists to identify serious conditions for referral has been constructed and is ready to be tested in children aged 2 months to 5 years attending pharmacies with fever, cough, runny nose, vomiting or diarrhea.