ABSTRACT
Objective: The number of pharmacists regularly working at geriatric health service facilities is limited, but many users of such facilities have multiple chronic conditions and receive continuous pharmacotherapy, simultaneously using numerous different types of oral drugs. We examined the outcomes of pharmacotherapeutic intervention provided by hospital pharmacists for geriatric health service facility users.Methods: We examinedthe outcomes of active pharmacotherapeutic intervention providedby hospital pharmacists for 154 facility users.Results: After the intervention, there were significant decreases in the mean number of types and price of drugs used, as they decreased from 7.38 to 6.17 and 368.3 to 309.2 yen/day, respectively. The number of prescription drugs changed was 300, and 206 of these changes were proposedby the pharmacists. The efficacy-basedcategories that these drugs belongedto widely ranged. The most frequent reasons for change were the “disappearance of symptoms”, “based on indications”, and “suspected adverse events”. Adverse events variedfrom mildto those that may leadto severe conditions.Conclusion: Pharmacotherapeutic interventions by pharmacists may optimize pharmacotherapy, reduce polypharmacy, and reduce the financial burden on geriatric health service facilities.
ABSTRACT
<p>The awareness of many residents on generic drugs has increased recently, which is also reflected in their increased consumption. Enlightenment activities for citizens have become an important tool to further promote the use of generic drugs. We performed a questionnaire survey and assessed residents’ consciousness after a lecture on generic drug usage in a people’s forum. We received responses from 105 of the recruited 127 participants. Most questionnaire respondents were from the age group of 70 years and comprised about half of the sample. The respondents having undefined will to the question about use of generic drugs was the most frequent. Only a few participants answered that they hoped getting generic drugs from a pharmacy or hospital. The concerns and future requests for generic drugs were the cost of medicine, validity, safety, and quality. The middle group by which the participants were classified into a positive group, a middle group and a negative group among question on usage and request of generic drugs, in its percentage each age groups, was most. Many respondents answered that generic drug use “should be spread” after the lecture. However, it was identified that the communication between doctor, pharmacist, and the patient on generic drug use is insufficient in the open question. Enlightenment activities for citizens will become necessary because half of the respondents expressed negative opinions on the use of generic drugs.</p>
ABSTRACT
After we organized a community-based home medical care (HMC) training workshop composed of presentations by welfare and care workers in addition to patients’ family and targeting community pharmacists in collaboration with a regional pharmacy association, we carried out a questionnaire survey to the pharmacists in attendance to take hold on pharmacist’ opinions for the workshop and attitudes for HMC. The participants had a relatively high level of satisfaction regarding the workshop, rating an average of 7.81 out of 10.0. Among the participants, 77.5% had experience of HMC such as visiting pharmacy services at patient’ home, with the most widely practiced activity being “drug administration guidance for patients at home.” However, activities such as “accompany at the time of rounds” and “participation in conferences” were not widely practiced (less than 50% of the most activity) among the participants. Many participants responded that the key factors of HMC were the cooperation system between different professionals and its environmental arrangement. Overall, positive feedback from participants regarding this workshop was reported, through statements such as “I was able to rediscover the need for cooperation in a diverse team with differing job functions” and “the care of patients and their family was important.” We found many opinions that cooperation with other professionals is important in deepening pharmacists’ involvement in HMC, and that this workshop serves as a bridge to establish greater communication between care workers and pharmacists.