Relationship between the Number of Pharmacists per Pharmacy and the Provision of Home Healthcare Services in Japan.

Home healthcare services provided by community pharmacists are essential for maintaining community care, especially in Japan's aging population. Personnel shortage in pharmacies is occasionally cited as the reason why pharmacies are unable to provide home healthcare services. This study examined the relationship between the number of pharmacists in each pharmacy and the provision of home healthcare services. The number of full-time and part-time pharmacists per pharmacy has a positive impact on the provision of home healthcare services. Moreover, the larger the number of pharmacists per pharmacy, the easier it is for the pharmacy to provide home healthcare services. With regard to pharmacies with one full-time pharmacist, there are more pharmacies that provide home healthcare services when the population density of municipalities where the pharmacy is located is high. However, the impact of the number of pharmacists on population density became obscure when the number of full-time pharmacists per pharmacy was three or more. Taken together, these findings indicate that the provision of home healthcare services by pharmacies is related to the number of pharmacists per pharmacy and the population density of the area. This could have implications for widening regional disparities in home healthcare services.

Impact of the increase in the number of community pharmacists on their geographical distribution in Japan: a retrospective survey.

BACKGROUND: Appropriate distribution of health care resources is required to adjust regional disparities in the quality of health care. Besides, the number of community pharmacists in Japan has increased recently, but the impact of this increase on the distribution of community pharmacists is unknown. Thus, we aimed at investigating the effect of the increase in the number of community pharmacists on the distribution per population and per area of inhabitable land. METHODS: Data from 2008 to 2018 were used. Equity among municipalities in the number of community pharmacists per population and per area of inhabitable land was assessed using the Gini coefficient. A mosaic plot was used to demonstrate the relationship between the population density and increase in the number of community pharmacists per municipality. RESULTS: The number of community pharmacists increased by approximately 1.3-fold from 2008 to 2018 in Japan. The Gini coefficient per population decreased gradually, whereas that per area increased slightly, with no change in distribution per area of inhabitable land. The number of community pharmacists per population increased regardless of the population density, but this increase per area was smaller for lower population density groups and larger for higher population density groups. CONCLUSION: The increase in the number of community pharmacists has improved the distribution of community pharmacists per population, but not that per area of inhabitable land. The maldistribution of community pharmacists per area implies an imbalance in the distance between pharmacies and residents. Thus, there is need for measures to improve the distribution of community pharmacists.