Pharmacists contribute to the improved efficiency of medical practices in the outpatient cancer chemotherapy clinic.

ABSTRACT

RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: Outpatient cancer chemotherapy is increasing with the development of anticancer agents, and roles of medical staff are becoming more and more important in cancer chemotherapy. We showed here roles of pharmacists with experience in oncology and evaluated outcomes of their activities in medical practices in cancer chemotherapy clinic. METHODS: Two pharmacists were newly assigned to the outpatient cancer chemotherapy clinic, where they were in charge of verification of prescription orders, mixing of anticancer injections, monitoring adverse drug reactions, implementation of supportive care and provision of information about cancer chemotherapy to medical staff and patients. The number of patients, amounts of mixing of anticancer injections and hospital revenue were compared before and after assignment of pharmacists. Management of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in breast cancer patients receiving the combination chemotherapy with anthracycline and cyclophosphamide were also compared. RESULTS: Pharmacists spent 75 hours per month in patient education and adverse drug reactions monitoring, which led to the reduction of the workload of physicians. As a consequence, the number of outpatients and the resultant hospital revenue markedly increased. In addition, facilitation of proper use of anti-emetic drugs led to the improved control of chemotherapy-induced nausea with reducing the cost for anti-emesis by 16%. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacists contributed to the improved efficiency of medical practices.