2020 Volume 12 Issue 2 Pages 129-134
Patients can freely decide which insurance pharmacy they bring their prescription to, but they tend to choose a pharmacy near the hospital that they can easily access. However, the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare promotes “family pharmacies” that check polypharmacy, possible unnecessary prescribed medicine, and residual medicines which were not taken. In this study, we performed a survey to assess 1) how to become a “family pharmacy” that is chosen by patients and 2) how patients select an insurance pharmacy. Our result revealed that many patients selected “a place (location)” as a dominant preference. This suggests that although the Japanese government is promoting “family pharmacies,” many patients choose insurance pharmacies based on their location. In addition, the selection criteria that the patients had for “family pharmacies” were investigated. The first requirement is that “they are nice to patients.” Second, they need to have a “wide knowledge about health.” These results suggest that to become the “family pharmacy” chosen by patients, knowledge about medicine and health is necessary. In addition, the ability to communicate is important for pharmacists and clerks in a pharmacy. Moreover, “online medical examinations,” “electronic prescriptions,” “using a computer to provide explanation about medicine to a patient at a distant place,” and “delivery of medicines” are recently conducted in national strategy special zones. If these systems are accepted in the future, then “family pharmacies” where information about a patient’s disease and medication is available would become common. Moreover, “family pharmacies” would reduce the burden of patients on national programs.
