Abstract
Following recent changes among acute phase medical treatments, such as examination and simple treatment, even surgery has been switching over from being “hospitalization-centered” to “outpatient-centered”. As our first efforts, in accordance with this movement, we started with chemotherapy at the Outpatient All-round Treatment Center (referred to the Center hereafter) of our hospital. We discuss here the outline of our Center's program, efficiency of its operation, importance of the presence of full-time pharmacologist (s), preventive measures for adverse effects of the treatments in the Center, merits of day-surgery, and advantages in hospital management. We have found that this system produces a number of advantages not only for the patients and their families but also the hospital workers as well. It would be our pleasure if “outpatient-centered” hospital treatments become practiced more actively, and in turn contribute towards the popularization of the at-homecentered medical treatment system, a stated policy goal of the Ministry of Welfare and Labor.
