• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.88-108
• /
• 2001

Separation of prescribing and dispensing practice in Korea has changed the service pattern of the pharmacy. The prescription dispensing activities, however, are concentrated excessively on the pharmacies near hospitals or clinics. Thus this study was conducted to estimate the number of optimal dispensing cases for the community pharmacy. Forty-six pharmacies were selected using systematic stratified random sampling method, and ninety-five pharmacists were interviewed on their workload of dispensing and other activities at pharmacies. One hundred and seventy prescriptions were chosen based on the length of drug administration and drug dosage form, and the dispensing time was measured by time-watch method. Also pharmacy benefit claims data were analyzed to identify the characteristics of the pharmacies which performed more than optimal dispensing cases. According to the study results, the average work time per pharmacist per day was found to be 10hours 32minutes and the dispensing activities occupied 7hours 36minutes. It took 5.72minutes on average for each dispensing case. The optimal dispensing case was estimated as 75 cases under the condition of 10hours 32minutes work time and 6% allowance rate. Even though the pharmacies near hospitals or clinics participated dispensing services actively, only pharmacies near clinics dealt with more than optimal dispensing cases. For the pharmacies near hospitals they dealt with less than optimal cases, but drug administration period per prescription was almost 3 times longer than that of pharmacies near clinics. Thus the intensity of dispensing activities such as drug administration period is to be considered to estimate optimal dispensing cases more accurately.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.187-199
• /
• 2015

Background: Singapore has the stable healthcare system with utilizing pharmacist manpower in proper positions by demand of populations' health among Asian countries. Objective: This study aims to systematically review (1) the pharmacists' role and (2) the pharmacy education system of Singapore in comparison with Korea. Method: We searched for information about academic, medical and governmental institutions related to professional pharmacists' practice in Singapore by primarily using database such as DBpia, KISS, Google Scholar and ProQuest and the official website of the Singapore Ministry of Health. We contacted and arranged the visit schedules with National University of Singapore, National Health Group's polyclinics, Agency for Integrated Care, National University Hospital, and community chain pharmacies. During onsite visits, we interviewed pharmacists working in each institution and obtained additional documents and materials relevant to this manuscript work. Results: To become a registered pharmacist in Singapore, the pharmacy curriculum requires four full-time academic years and six additional months allotted for pre-registration training. Pharm.D. course is offered for pharmacy graduate students with additional two full-time years of study. Team teaching and inter professional education program seem the most significant method in pharmacy education. Pharmacists working at hospitals, polyclinics, and community pharmacies in Singapore take broader roles and offer more cognitive services such as smoking cessation program and medication reconciliation. Especially, pharmacists in Agency for Integrated Care fill the role of primary care providers for the continuing care of the community through the governmental support toward the patients-centered integrated care. Conclusion: Singaporean pharmacists take significant and active roles in collaboration with other healthcare providers. Efforts such as interprofessional pharmacy education and governmental endorsement of the systematic and interactive care between pharmacists and other medical providers in Singapore are needed to be urgently applied to Korea healthcare system for the promotion of population health.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.85-90
• /
• 2002

The aim of this study was to examine the current turnover status of hospital pharmacists and to analyze the factors which affected the turnover of them after the separation of prescribing and dispensing practice. We surveyed 19 managers of hospital pharmacies and 154 hospital pharmacists. Results are as follows. Pharmacist manpower of hospital pharmacies was only $63.99\%$ in tertiary hospitals and $76.78\%$ in general hospitals respectively of the number of pharmacists before the separation of prescription and dispensing practice. The ratio of those who left hospital pharmacies during the period of January 2000 and October 2001 was $80.23\%$ for tertiary hospitals, and $100.84\%$ for general hospitals. Decrease in the number of pharmacists brought the increase of work load and night duty. Major factors which affected the turnover of hospital pharmacists were found as following: income gap between hospital pharmacists and community pharmacists, increasing workload especially at night and on holidays, infrequent chance for the promotion, and low chance to provide clinical pharmacy services after the separation of prescribing and dispensing practice. Adequate manpower is the basic factor for providing hospital pharmacy services and improving clinical pharmacy services. The study suggested that proper number of hospital pharmacists is to be ensured through strengthening the legal requirement for the hospital pharmacists and improving health insurance reimbursement rate for the pharmaceutical services at hospital.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
• /
• v.52 no.6
• /
• pp.471-479
• /
• 2008

The purpose of this study is to investigate the best way that Oriental medicine contributes for activation of pharmacy management after the separation of prescribing and dispensing practice since July 2000. In order to investigate current pharmacy conditions for handling of Oriental medicine and many problems for administering the Oriental medicine to patients, a questionnaire was written with a list of questions related to pharmacy management with Oriental medicine, and given to 58 subjects via fax or personal visit during the period of April 21 to 30, 2003. The research results was as follows; In th 58 subjects, 45 subjects (77.6%) were pharmacists with a licence for dispensing Oriental medicine. 70.7% of subjects most likely preferred to extract granule as administering type of oriental medicine. About the motivation using Oriental medicine, the reason for activation of pharmacy management was 39.7%, second, the reason for resolving the limitation of treatment over western medicine was 25.9%. Oriental medicine for patients was mainly administered by recommendation with pharmacist (65.5%). In comparison with after and before the separation of prescribing and dispensing, 51.7% of subjects answered that sale volume was decreased after the separation. Concerning the ratio of total sales volume to Oriental medicine within 5 years, 50% of subjects expected that sales volume will increase positively. About treating Oriental medcine, 34.5% of subjects thought the problem is the regulation by limiting 100 kinds of formulary. The most important factor for increasing Oriental medicine selling amount was continueous education for various information of oriental medicine in case of 44.8% of sujects. The best pharmacy to handle oriental medicine was community pharmacy (36.2%). It was expressed the reason why many pharmacists have not been treated oriental medicine because lots of time needs for dispensing prescription from clinics in these 4 years after the separation of prescribing and dispensing. These results lead to the conclusion that the Oriental medicine at pharmacy will greatly increase within 5 years and will be very important portion for pharmacy management.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
• /
• v.58 no.2
• /
• pp.129-140
• /
• 2014

Background: As elderly population has been increasing, pharmacists need to possess special knowledge and skills to provide enhanced pharmaceutical care for senior patients. Purpose: This study aims to systematically review on (1) the certified geriatric pharmacists (CGP) system, (2) the curriculum related to geriatric pharmacy education, and (3) the CGP's performance in terms of clinical, economic and humanistic outcomes in the U.S. Method: The information related to CGP system and curriculum was obtained through the official websites of 'American Society of Consultant Pharmacists', 'Commission for Certification in Geriatric Pharmacy' and the selected pharmacy school samples. Articles about on the outcomes of pharmacist-provided cognitive services including Medication Therapy Management were searched through PubMed. Results: To gain the CGP credential, pharmacists need 2-year experience as pharmacist in advance and take the CGP examination. This certification must be renewed every 5 year. Most pharmacy schools provide geriatric-related curriculum through didactic or pharmacy practice classes for pharmacy students and certificate or dual degree in gerontology are given on completion. Most previous outcomes research reported that pharmacists have played a role in yielding favorable results regarding clinical, economic and humanistic outcomes for nursing facilities, hospitals and community pharmacy settings. Conclusion: Considering the organized CGP certification system and concrete educational courses established the basis for pharmacists to exert their ability for senior patients of the U.S., it is suggested to build a geriatric pharmacist credential model for pharmacists to provide the increasing elderly patients with the requisite safe and effective pharmacy care in Korea.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.414-422
• /
• 2001

Antibiotic resistance in human pathogens is a major public health issue. Some of the resistance problem can be attributed to the transfer of resistant bacteria from animals to people and the transfer of resistance genes from animal pathogens and commensal bacteria to human pathogens. Control measures include improvements in food hygiene to reduce the spread of zoonotic bacteria to people via the food chain. However, to specifically address the issue, the medical profession must control misuse and overuse of antibiotics in hospitals and community practice. In addition, the livestock industries and their advisors must reduce and refine the use of antibiotics in animal production and replace antibiotics with alternative disease control measures as much as possible.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Applied Pharmacology
• /
• 2006.11a
• /
• pp.23-39
• /
• 2006

The application of the knowledge from the Human Genome Project to clinical medicine will be through both industrial drug development and the application of pharmacogenomics (PG) to patient care. The slow uptake of clinical innovations into clinical practice can be frustrating, but understanding the history of acceptance and sustaining medical innovation is critically important to position PG to succeed. This primarily means that PG tests must have legitimacy; they must be thoroughly validated, must be cost-effective, must be widely accepted by medical practitioners, must be supported by public policy, and must have a way of being easily incorporated into current medical practice. They must also lead to actionalble decisions by health care providers for their patients. Innovative PG assays should be tested in the best US laboratories, and reimbursement for testing must be accepted at the federal and state level. The companies providing these PG tests should be capable of supporting the interpretation and use of the test throughout medical practice. Advances such as the addition of PG information to drug labeling and the routine use of validated biomarkers to determine choice of cancer chemotherapy have been made. The PG research community must pay attention to the principles that have been previously described for acceptance and sustaining medical innovations in order for PG to be widely accepted in clinical medical practice.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.1-6
• /
• 2007

The application of the knowledge from the Human Genome Project to clinical medicine will be through both industrial drug development and the application of pharmacogenomics (PG) to patient care. The slow uptake of clinical innovations into clinical practice can be frustrating, but understanding the history of acceptance and sustaining medical innovation is critically important to position PG to succeed. This primarily means that PG tests must have legitimacy; they must be thoroughly validated, must be cost-effective, must be widely accepted by medical practitioners, must be supported by public policy, and must have a way of being easily incorporated into current medical practice. They must also lead to actionalble decisions by health care providers for their patients. Innovative PG assays should be tested in the best US laboratories, and reimbursement for testing must be accepted at the federal and state level. The companies providing these PG tests should be capable of sup-porting the interpretation and use of the test throughout medical practice. Advances such as the addition of PG information to drug labeling and the routine use of validated biomarkers to determine choice of cancer chemotherapy have been made. The PG research community must pay attention to the principles that have been previously described for acceptance and sustaining medical innovations in order for PG to be widely accepted in clinical medical practice.

• 한국약용작물학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2006.11a
• /
• pp.23-39
• /
• 2006

The application of the knowledge from the Human Genome Project to clinical medicine will be through both industrial drug development and the application of pharmacogenomics (PG) to patient care. The slow uptake of clinical innovations into clinical practice can be frustrating, but understanding the history of acceptance and sustaining medical innovation is critically important to position PG to succeed. This primarily means that PG tests must have legitimacy; they must be thoroughly validated, must be cost-effective, must be widely accepted by medical practitioners, must be supported by public policy, and must have a way of being easily incorporated into current medical practice. They must also lead to actionalble decisions by health care providers for their patients. Innovative PG assays should be tested in the best US laboratories, and reimbursement for testing must be accepted at the federal and state level. The companies providing these PG tests should be capable of supporting the interpretation and use of the test throughout medical practice. Advances such as the addition of PG information to drug labeling and the routine use of validated biomarkers to determine choice of cancer chemotherapy have been made. The PG research community must pay attention to the principles that have been previously described for acceptance and sustaining medical innovations in order for PG to be widely accepted in clinical medical practice.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.119-126
• /
• 2017

Background: As the demands of pharmacist's role and quality performance have increased, the verification of pharmacist's ability has been required. In this study, we aimed to select appropriate items for assessment of pharmacist's knowledge, attitude and performance. Methods: Based on the pharmacist job analysis, we selected duties and tasks in consideration of applying pharmacy practical examination through brainstorming of internal researchers and group discussion with experts. Survey was conducted to evaluate the tasks according to the criteria detailed below: Realistic, Understandable, Measurable, Behavioral and Achievable (RUMBA). The subjects included professors at colleges of pharmacy and instructors of institutional or community pharmacy settings. Results: Nine duties including 41 tasks were drawn for the survey through primary internal researchers. Of the 90 respondents, 95.6% were professors or preceptors who was engaged in practical training, and 62.2% had more than five years of practical experience. As a result of survey and discussion with expert panel, selected seven duties were selected as followings: 'Patient (customer) reception', 'Drug preparation and distribution', 'Patient care', 'Administration', 'Patient counseling', 'Non-prescription medication counseling', and 'Provision of drug information'. The final 20 tasks from seven duties were chosen to assess skills that a pharmacist should be able to perform. Conclusion: This is the first study to select the items that can be included in pharmacist practical examination in the future, based on the RUMBA criteria. As a next step, it is necessary to study how to implement these items.