[Construction of a Home-Visiting System as a Family Pharmacy].

"The Vision for Patient-centered Pharmacies," published by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare(MHLW)in October 2015 specifies three functions of family pharmacies, including home medical care. In 1994, home-visits by pharmacists officially began; however, before then, we had already visited patients whose medications and life situations were of concern, at their homes. Based on that experience, as we were planning to undertake home-visits after their institutionalization, we conducted a study of a system that would promote home care using pharmacists handling various duties, including prescriptions and health consulting. Considering the pharmacists' years of experience and work shifts, efficiency/productivity, and the role of a family pharmacy, we developed a home medical care support system by allocating two pharmacists to each patient's home. Thus, we concluded that if the entire pharmacy would be involved in home-visiting services along with outpatient prescription dispensing services as part of continuous follow-up of patients from hospital visits to home care, the pharmacy would eventually serve as a family pharmacy in the community.