2019 Volume 11 Issue 2 Pages 119-127
Pharmacies in hospitals often use the telephone to communicate with other departments. However, dispensing is interrupted frequently because of the large number of phone calls, which might result in dispensing errors. There has been little research on developing effective measures for efficient telephone communication. Therefore, in this paper, measures for efficient telephone communication was discussed. We investigated the number and contents of phone calls using a questionnaire with physicians, nurses, and pharmacists. In total, 81 phone calls were made to the pharmacy per day, with most pertaining to a dispensation request. Subsequently, the means of making a dispensation request was changed from the telephone to a pneumatic tube transport system. Additionally, we educated other departments regarding the appropriate use of the pharmacy telephone line. These improvements in transmission means led to a reduction in the number of calls to 68 cases per day, improving the dispatch request phone communication duration from 40.6 seconds to 28.6 seconds per case. Further, the telephone communication duration was reduced from 33 minutes to 19 minutes per day. Our results demonstrate that information transmission using the pneumatic tube transport system in combination with telephone line separation reduces pharmacists’ telephone communication duration. As a result, pharmacists would be able to focus on pharmacy practice, which in turn contributes to medical safety.
