Evaluation of Pharmacist-led Interview before Doctor Examination for Psychiatry Outpatients

Psychiatric treatment is shifting from hospital to ambulatory care. It is important that pharmacists positively support outpatients. Pharmacist-led interviews with outpatients have been conducted in the psychiatric department of Iizuka Hospital before examination by the doctor since 2015. Few studies in this field have reported about the effect of the pharmacist-led interviews using subjective evaluation of outpatients prior to examination by doctors. The aim of this study was to reveal this effect by the evaluation of outpatients. We conducted a questionnaire survey. More than 80% of the patients responded that it was “Good” to have an interview with the pharmacist prior to examination by the doctor. Moreover, 71.7% of the patients were “Satisfied” with the pharmacist-led interview, while 81.7% of them responded to “Agree” about continuing the interview in the future. Patients who were satisfied and wished to continue the pharmacist-led interviews were more likely to report better rapport with the doctor as well, in comparison to the patients who answered negatively. Furthermore, the patients who answered “Satisfied” were significantly less likely to forget reporting to the doctor than those who answered negatively. The pharmacist-led interviews in the psychiatric department were appreciated by the patients. In conclusion, pharmacists can facilitate communication between patients and doctors through these interviews. These results indicate that the pharmacist-led interview before the doctor examination is a useful effort from the perspective of outpatients.