For pharmacists, the environment has changed greatly.
In “A study to investigate and evaluate the effectiveness of team medical care and community healthcare, in which pharmacists play a key role,” a new standard for promoting home-care was formulated and published on the Japanese Society of Pharmaceutical Health Care and Sciences homepage in January 2014. This document provides community pharmacies with a set of guidelines that define the recommended functions and structure that community pharmacies should aim to achieve.
In the present study, we surveyed the chief pharmacists of community pharmacies to find out how well they were able to meet the new standards and what changes would be necessary to achieve these standards and evaluate the results. The survey response rate was 60.0% (300/500).
While many pharmacies have established the necessary basic systems, only 23.7% have installed aseptic preparation equipment.
Procedures for medication and pharmacology management in community pharmacies varied widely; the levels of readiness for dispensing a single prescription in multiple portions (because of, for example, too long an administration period), homecare medicine, and the promotion of generic medicines was low, with only 50% or fewer of the pharmacies meeting the required standard.
It is important that all community pharmacies take a positive approach to achieving the new standard of work.
