[Construction of a pharmacy network that supports home medical care]

Home medical care is recently being promoted thanks to the establishment of the related medical insurance system and by patient choice. Home medical care requires a collaboration of home treatment, home nursing, and drug supply, and within this collaborative network, pharmacists also play the role to supply drugs (dispensing). Drugs that used for home care include injectable agents for pain control or hygiene management. Therefore, pharmacies need to be furnished with clean rooms and clean benches to dispense drugs aseptically. However, because of the enormous costs of capital investment and the uncertainty of the number of patients who will use pharmacies, a very few pharmacies are adequately furnished. The survey has revealed that 76 pharmacies are adequately furnished. It is presumed that home medical care will continuously promoted in the future so a network of pharmacies that can dispense injectable drugs must be set up under the home care support system.