This retrospective study assessed the role of hospital pharmacists in the initiation of growth hormone (GH) therapy in an outpatient setting. The study included 28 pediatric patients (< 15 years old) who started GH therapy at our institution between January 2012 and December 2021. Following physician referrals, hospital pharmacists provided medication counseling to the patients and their families. Notably, 6 patients (20%) opted for a specific GH formulation after receiving detailed explanations from the pharmacists. The observed growth velocity (cm/year) and serum IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor-1) SD scores were comparable to those reported in clinical trials for Norditropin®. Three patients (11%) opted to discontinue treatment. A survey among 5 pediatricians revealed a unanimous agreement that the involvement of hospital pharmacists in outpatient services alleviated their workload during the initiation of GH therapy. Thus, the task of providing medication counseling at the initiation of GH therapy in pediatric patients could potentially be shifted from physicians to pharmacists.

Home-based and in hospital pharmacists at our hospital pharmacy participated in this study. A survey of the home-based pharmacists’ work contents was tabulated from November 2019 to May 2021. Furthermore, a questionnaire survey was administered within the pharmacy in May 2020. 90% of the hospital pharmacists would consider some drug information management to be able to work from home. Moreover, evaluation of the questionnaires revealed that more than 90% of the in-hospital pharmacists were “satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with deliverables of home-based pharmacists. The in-hospital pharmacists found communication tools (e.g., social networking services, telephone, and web-conferencing systems) to be useful for facilitating collaboration with the home-based pharmacist. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the internet environment to work from home. Moreover, it is important to create an environment where pharmacists can work from home according to their desire and needs in cases such as childcare, nursing care, during treatment, and during a pandemic. This study indicates that hospital pharmacists can carry out their responsibilities and demonstrate their work abilities not only in the hospital pharmacy setting but also in a remote working environment.