We conducted a survey on pharmaceutical counseling at hospitals in the Kyushu-Yamaguchi Area to investigate problems in the management of inpatient pharmaceutical care. The implementation rate of pharmaceutical counseling was 81.3%, and was steadily increasing. Although the implementation rate for checking medicines brought by patients at the time of hospitalization was also high (96.2%), pharmacists expressed dissatisfaction with the present situation. The results indicated that continual, efficient assessment of medicines brought by patients when hospitalized would lead to an increase in pharmaceutical care fees reimbursed by health insurance.
Respondents said that they provided continuous pharmaceutical counseling regarding the management of medicines brought in by the patients, but their scores for satisfaction with the current situation in the self-assessment varied depending on whether they provided pharmaceutical counseling when the patients left hospital or not. The satisfaction scores suggested that hospital pharmacists wished to provide pharmaceutical care consistently from the time of hospitalization until after the patients left hospital.
A lack of pharmacists is hindering the provision of pharmaceutical counseling in many hospitals and based on our survey results, we believe it is important to increase the amount of technical fees received for pharmaceutical counseling conducted when patients are discharged. We also feel that promoting cooperation between hospital and community pharmacists would help further improve pharmaceutical care.