[Reasonable dispensing fee for patients].
The actual pharmacist workload is not always reflected in dispensing fees, while patients do not always understand the system of dispensing fees. In this study, the relation between the time required for dispensing and prescription details and that between the time required for instruction on drug administration and instruction details in nine pharmacies in Chiba prefecture were investigated. As a result of linear regression analysis, it was suggested that, compared with doses, the number of drug items more greatly affected the time required for dispensing. For oral drugs, the following relation was suggested in the study: [dispensing time (sec)]=29.3+27.5 x [number of items]+0.7 x[dosing days]+94.4 x [number of items]+7.1 x [dosing days]. Based on the actual dispensing fees claimed, fees per second of dispensing were estimated at 0.7 point. For drug administration instruction, it was considered reasonable to classify instructions into three categories according to the instruction details and set fees by the categories. When any further pharmaceutical expertise is required, fees should not be set according to the workload but additional fees should be provided to reward expertise.
Aoki
Rie
R
College of Pharmacy, Nihon University, Funabashi, Chiba, Japan.
Shiragami
Makoto
M
D017850:Economics, Pharmaceutical; D007356:Insurance, Pharmaceutical Services / Q000191:economics*; D007564:Japan; D016014:Linear Models; D011306:Prescription Fees / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011361:Professional Competence / Q000191:economics*; D016526:Workload / Q000191:economics*