2020 年 46 巻 9 号 p. 515-521
Telephone consultation is an important communication process with patients in community pharmacy. The analysis of the telephone consultation contents provides us with consideration of the problem of medical instruction at community pharmacies. In this study, we investigated the contents of telephone consultations at Gifu Pharmaceutical University Pharmacy and discussed medication instruction at the pharmacy considering the information from telephone consultations. A total of 217 telephone consultations over 4 years were investigated. Patients in a wide range of ages experienced telephone consultations and no gender difference was observed. Although a wide array of drugs was considered in telephone consultations, the consultations about the medicine for cardiovascular diseases were frequently experienced. We also investigated the detailed contents of telephone consultations. In the consultations, ‘side effects / drug-drug interactions’, ’whether it can be taken or used together’ and ‘taking or usage method’ were major topics. In many cases, patients’ lack of understanding led to the consultations, although inefficient explanation by pharmacists also caused the consultations in some cases such as sheet design changes.
Taken together, the investigation of the telephone consultations showed the difficulty of providing precise explanations about the details of drug administration to the patients. This study also showed that the analysis of telephone consultations is useful for finding improvements of medication instruction at a community pharmacy.