Evaluation of System Development and Organization Regarding the Participation System of Pharmacists in Home Medical Care Support

Abstract

Although medical care is shifting from facility-completed to community-completed type, currently there is only a small number of pharmacists＇ participating in home medical care. This is due to problems in the participation system including; information inadequacy of the pharmacies available for home visit service (information discrepancy between submitted information and actual availability), inadequate recognition of pharmacists＇ roles and operations on home medical care, visible relationship building, etc. Therefore, we have established the promotion committee of home medical care and have taken various measures. At the committee, we have created a map of pharmacies supporting home medical care (with information of availability for home visit service and available area / time), construction and operation of a system for searching pharmacies with narcotics＇ inventory from drug names, preparation of information and documents necessary for participation, creation and distribution of a brochure for public relations of the home visiting pharmaceutical service, and improvement of the multidisciplinary cooperation through training sessions, etc. based on the results of a home medical care survey conducted in all the insurance pharmacies in the area. As a result, we have gained the recognition and understanding of the pharmacists＇ roles, etc. having led to an increase in the number of medical institutions available for home visit service and pharmacies participating in home medical care accordingly. We could establish a system by which pharmacists support home medical care by addressing various problems affecting pharmacists.Key words --home medical care, pharmacists participate in home medical care, improvement of participation system, promotion committee of home medical care, multidisciplinary cooperation, the map of the pharmacies supporting home medical care