Contribution of Pharmaceutical Inquiries Performed by Community Pharmacists Based on “Patient Interviews”: Evaluation of Current Situation and Patient Safety

Abstract

To provide safe pharmacotherapy, pharmacists are required to interview patients to obtain relevant information. However, some ordinary citizens resent being interviewed by community pharmacists; thus, it is necessary to increase patient understanding of the process. In this study, we focused on pharmacy inquiries based on patient interviews and attempted to evaluate the current situation and contribution to patient safety. We used inquiry data from a community pharmacy nearby Hokkaido University Hospital. Pharmacy inquiries based on “patient interviews” accounted for 33.3% of the all pharmacy inquiries, showed a high permission proportion (98.5%), and contributed greatly to patient safety with respect to “usage and dosage.” Further, it was confirmed that pharmacy inquiries based on the information that “the explanation from the doctor and the actual prescription are inconsistent” indicated a contribution to patient safety. Our findings provide a preliminary evidence for a large-scale survey on the usefulness of pharmacy inquiries based on “patient interviews”.