Investigation and Analysis on the Current Situation of Pediatric Pharmacist-managed Clinic in China

OBJECTIVE To investigate the current situation of pediatric pharmacist-managed clinic in China, and to provide reference for pediatric pharmacist-managed clinic construction and improvement. METHODS Domestic Children's hospitals, Women's & Children's Hospital, and general hospitals with pediatric unit were selected as the survey objects, questionnaires were distributed through the Wenjuanxing Application, and SPSS 26.0 was used to describe the data. The development of pediatric pharmacist-managed clinic, the qualification of visiting pharmacists, the situation of post training and training needs were analyzed. RESULTS A total of 101 valid questionnaires were collected. Pediatric pharmacist-managed clinics had been set up in 55(54.5%) hospitals, of which 35 were independent pharmacists' clinics, and most had well medical document and patient management processes. However, about 70% of hospitals did not charge registration fees, and more than half of hospitals had fewer than 5 patient-visits per day. 85.5% of the hospitals were visited by clinical pharmacists, and about half of them were senior clinical pharmacists with more than 10 years of working experience. But only 3.6% of visiting pharmacists had the right of specific prescription. In 101 hospitals relevant post training for pharmacists had been carried out in 36 hospitals, of which 25 hospitals had set up pharmacist-managed clinic. In addition to pharmaceutical expertise, more than 50% of pharmacists had a strong demand for the improvement of physician-patient communication and problem-solving ability, and 30%-40% of the demand was focused on the collection of medication history, psychological counseling ability, and case-based learning in the pharmacist-managed clinic. CONCLUSION At present, the domestic pediatric pharmacist-managed clinic shows a vigorous development trend, however, there are insufficient registration fees, visits, and post training. Appropriate service methods of pediatric pharmacist-managed clinic should be actively explored, and a pediatric specialized training system for should be well constructed to improve the competency.