抄録
In the present study,we investigated the situation of medicines brought to an internal medicine ward by inpatients.Eighty-five percent of the inpatients brought a total of 2,072 medicines (7.3 medicines per person) to hospital and 17% of them had medicines prescribed by 2 or more hospitals.Twenty-eight percent of medicines had been packaged as unit-doses.Among 720 medicines prescribed by other hospitals,pharmacists could not determine the name for 20 of them and the dosage for 163 of them.
The results of a detailed analysis suggested that the removal of a limit on the number of prescription days,the introduction of the Diagnosis Procedure Combination (DPC) and promoting the prescription of generic drugs all influenced the bringing of medicines to hospital upon admission.
The present study also suggested the necessity of liaison between the hospital pharmacy and community pharmacy of one hospital and those of other hospitals in order to obtain detailed information on medicines brought to hospital by inpatients.
In conclusion,we feel that only pharmacists can perform the role of inspecting medicines brought to hospital by inpatients since this is a highly specialized task involving so many important issues.
