Abstract
In recent years, pharmacists have undertaken various responsibilities such as pharmacological management in hospital wards. One strategy that aimed to optimize working time to enhance pharmaceutical management involves delegating certain aspects of a pharmacist’s tasks to non-pharmacists. Although medical supply processing and distribution (SPD) has gained attention as a drug inventory management system, the effect of implementing medical SPD on pharmacists’ working hours has not been analyzed. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the effects of implementing medical SPD on ward activities of pharmacists and the number of drug management guidance cases conducted by ward pharmacists. Time-series data from April 2020, before the implementation of medical SPD, to March 2023, two years after its implementation at Yamaguchi University Hospital, were analyzed using an interrupted time-series segmented regression analysis. Following medical SPD implementation, there were significant increases in working time within a ward and the number of drug management guidance cases by 9 hours per month per ward pharmacist (P = 0.019) and 8.8 cases per month per ward pharmacist (P = 0.022), respectively. However, the implementation of medical SPD did not significantly affect the trend in working time within a ward or the number of cases of drug management guidance. Moreover, the total costs of discarded drugs decreased by 16.8% after the implementation of the medical SPD compared to the pre-implementation period. These results imply that the implementation of medical SPD contributes to the optimization of ward activities of pharmacists and increases the number of drug management guidance cases conducted by ward pharmacists.
