Abstract
We conducted a questionnaire survey in the 388 Cancer Medicine Cooperation Base Hospitals to evaluate the contribution of board certified oncology pharmacists or senior pharmacists and current state of pharmacists' involvement in cancer chemotherapy. The response rate of the questionnaire was 70.6% (274/388). From the results of the questionnaire, 85% (233/274) of hospitals had board certified oncology pharmacists, such as Board Certified Pharmacist in Oncology Pharmacy, JSPHCS-certified Oncology Pharmacist, or JSPHCS-certified Senior Oncology Pharmacist. There was no statistical significance in the chemotherapy regimen of intravenous injection check rates between hospitals that had the board certified oncology pharmacists and hospitals that did not have the certified pharmacists. However, the percentage of facilities in which pharmacists checked oral chemotherapy regimens was higher in hospitals that had board certified oncology pharmacists compared to hospitals that did not have certified pharmacists both in hospitals' prescriptions (60.1% vs 31.7%, P < 0.05) and out of hospitals' prescriptions (12.4% vs 2.4%, P = 0.058). The percentage of facilities that answered they currently had sufficient interventions was higher in hospitals that had board certified oncology pharmacists than in hospitals that did not have them (60.5% vs 36.6%, P < 0.05). The results revealed that those board certified pharmacists could enhance pharmacists' interventions to pursue safe cancer chemotherapy.
