Comprehensive Survey of Information-sharing Tools Used between Hospital and Community Pharmacies

Abstract

In a community-based integrated care system, hospitals and community pharmacists must cooperate to support drug therapy of patients. Information-sharing tools support sharing; however, individual hospitals have unique forms of information-sharing tools. To clarify the situation, we reviewed the websites of 775 hospitals, including hospitals with special functioning and regional medical care support hospitals. We surveyed the types and management status of information-sharing tools used by hospital pharmacists and community pharmacists. Fifteen hospitals (2％) listed information-sharing tools used by hospital pharmacists. In contrast, 486 hospitals (63％) listed at least one type of information-sharing tool used by community pharmacists, with the highest percentage in the category of oncology, listed by 308 hospitals (40％). The second highest was a general drug information tool, which was listed by 294 hospitals (38％). Considering hospitals, the highest percentage of actual recipients of information sharing tools in all categories was in the pharmacy department. The percentage of hospitals using electronic information sharing was less than 10％. This survey clarified the actual situation and operational status of information-sharing tools between hospitals and pharmacies.