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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Digital Public Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1448471
This article is part of the Research Topic Reviews in Serious Games and Mobile Health Interventions: Form Design, Implementation, User Engagement, and Behavior Change View all 4 articles

Implementation and Evaluation of Whole-course-based Internet Hospital Outpatient Pharmacy Services: A Cross-sectional Study in Western China

Provisionally accepted
Yangyang Gao Yangyang Gao You Lv You Lv Shiyan Wang Shiyan Wang Mengran Guo Mengran Guo Yi Guo Yi Guo Minglin Zheng Minglin Zheng Lulu He Lulu He Fengbo Wu Fengbo Wu *Ping Fan Ping Fan
  • West China School of Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: In recent years, the development of telemedicine and eHealth services has led to the rapid worldwide growth of Internet hospitals, which played a significant role during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. However, little is known about the characteristics and safety of Internet hospital outpatient pharmacy services (IHOPSs), which represent a new model of pharmaceutical services. Objective: This study aimed to reveal the comprehensive characteristics and safety of whole-course-based IHOPSs in a general tertiary hospital in western China. Methods: We established a whole-course-based IHOPS model. A total of 373,936 online prescriptions placed from February 1, 2020 to January 31, 2023 were analyzed. These included information on patients, prescriptions, and deliveries; error rates for prescription reviews and medication dispensations; economic value; and degree of patient satisfaction. Over the course of the study, a total of 373,936 prescriptions representing 351,884 patients and 945,172 medications were delivered to 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, and 4 municipalities in China.Results: IHOPSs saved patients more than 320,376 days (7,689,036 h) and RMB (Renminbi) ¥94.05 million in costs. The error rates of prescription review and dispensing were 0.0011% and 0.0008%, respectively. The infectious disease department (n = 63,903; 17.09%) ranked first in the number of prescriptions written for all three consecutive years. Of the 373,936 delivered prescriptions, 90.15% (337,104/373,936) were sent to Sichuan.The IHOPS was found to be efficient, convenient, and safe because it handled the challenge of precisely and safely delivering medications to patients on time during and to the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. It provided patients with safe and convenient pharmaceutical services unlimited by geography or time zones. Widespread use of this service could help alleviate pressure on offline pharmacists, giving them the time and resources to provide other professional services. Our model can therefore serve as a useful reference for policymakers to support the development of Internet pharmaceutical services. Further efforts are needed to regulate and standardize the management of this novel service.

    Keywords: Internet hospital, Internet Hospital Outpatient Pharmacy Services (IHOPSs), Internet plus healthcare, COVID-19, Pharmaceutical service

    Received: 13 Jun 2024; Accepted: 22 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Gao, Lv, Wang, Guo, Guo, Zheng, He, Wu and Fan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Fengbo Wu, West China School of Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.