Current status of pharmaceutical care service in community pharmacy in Korea

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate how well the professional practice of community pharmacy-based pharmaceutical care was being performed in Korea. Current status and problems of the professional practice were investigated using survey questionnaire with ten questions regarding pharmaceutical care service such as DUR, written medication guide, patient consult, and therapeutic monitoring. Three hundred thirty one community pharmacies responded to the survey questionnaire. Of the respondent pharmacies, medium scale pharmacy (30-99 prescriptions daily) accounted for 66.47% followed by large scale (100-199 prescriptions daily), small scale (less than 30 prescriptions daily), and extra-large scale (greater 200 prescriptions daily). Prospective DUR was practiced in less than half of the community pharmacies (45.62%), and written medication guide was provided in only one-third of those (33.84%). Pharmacists average patient consult time was 3-5 minutes in most community pharmacies. Furthermore, 25% of the respondents answered that the time was less than two minutes. Based on this survey results, professional practice of the community pharmacies in Korea appears to be suboptimal in terms of GPP standards jointly announced by FIP and WHO. Therefore, it seems necessary to enforce the GPP accreditation at Korean Pharmaceutical Association level.