Roles of Nurses in Home Medical Care

Some patients of advanced age with heart failure (HF) require repeated hospital care. In an aging society, the importance of medical and social care support systems for patients with HF further increases. In Onomichi-city, a comprehensive community care system has been in place since its introduction in 1997. The system is called "Onomichi Type". This is an interprofessional care system in which a variety of healthcare professionals, with common basic knowledge of disease prevention, treatment and welfare, collaborate with other care professionals. These professionals gain shared knowledge in regard to care management, and fulfill their respective roles at Care Conferences held during a patient's hospital stay. Elderly patients also often have multiple comorbidities and take a lot of medicines. Some patients might forget to take their medicine, whereas others might take an overdose. Thus, sharing a patient's complete medical information with pharmacists is also necessary. We began to collaborate with pharmacists in hospitals and at pharmacies in 2014. The pharmacist plays a great role in providing comprehensive community medical care.