Abstract
Pharmacists play an important role not only in improving the safety and efficacy of drug therapy, but also in improving the efficiency of healthcare financing by prescription inquiries and provision of information to prescribing physicians. The purpose of this study was to survey prescription inquiries and provide information to physicians by pharmacists and to estimate the annual reduction in drug costs resulting from changes in prescriptions due to inquiries and information provision. The survey was conducted with the cooperation of the Japan Pharmaceutical Association and Nippon Pharmacy Association, requesting individual members of each organisation to respond to survey forms posted on the pharmacy website. The survey period was one week from December 2018 to March 2019. Responses were received from 2,783 pharmacies and 5,724 pharmacists, of which 2,117 (76％) and 5,024 (88％) were valid, respectively. The drug cost savings per prescription change due to prescription inquiries were –894 yen. The estimated annual drug cost savings due to prescription inquiries were –19,231,998,137 yen. The estimated drug cost savings per prescription change due to information provision were –1,103 yen. The estimated annual drug cost savings due to information provision were –944,257,363 yen. From these results, we conclude that prescription inquiries and the information provided by pharmacists contribute to community medicine through the efficiency of healthcare financing.
