Abstract
We carried out quantitative assessment of side effect management and pain control of pharmacist intervention for patients receiving outpatient chemotherapy. Between October 2011 and October 2012, total 3,444 chemotherapies were conducted at Shiga University of Medical Science Hospital. Of 331 chemotherapies, we intervened with side effect management, and calculated the improvement rate to compare the most severe grading of side effects or face scale (FS) between before and after pharmacist intervention. Of 331 interventions, 317 (95.8%) prescription suggestions were adopted by physicians, of which 266 were assessable for grading or FS. Of 266 assessable interventions, 135 suggestions (50.8%) caused significant improvement of the most severe grading score or FS, as compared to before pharmacist intervention. Improvement rate including patients' subjective symptoms was 69.5%. The results of our study indicate that side effect management and pain control by pharmacist intervention could be useful for grading improvement of receiving outpatient chemotherapy.
