RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 What is the current status of transplant pharmacy services in China? A nationwide cross-sectional survey
JF BMJ Open
JO BMJ Open
FD British Medical Journal Publishing Group
SP e093542
DO 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-093542
VO 15
IS 6
A1 Yang, Hui
A1 Yu, Xin
A1 Hu, Xiaopeng
A1 Ma, Kuifeng
A1 Chen, Pan
A1 Liu, Xiangduan
A1 Qian, Qing
A1 Hou, Wenjing
A1 Zeng, Fang
A1 Wang, Guangzhao
A1 Wang, Rongrong
A1 An, Zhuoling
YR 2025
UL http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/15/6/e093542.abstract
AB Background Pharmacists are vital to the multidisciplinary care for transplant patients, but the workforce of their work in China remains unclear.Objective To assess the current status of transplant pharmacists' work in China through a national workforce survey to evaluate service provision across transplantation stages and pharmacist capacity.Design, setting and participants Nationwide cross-sectional questionnaire-based study (25 March–1 April 2024) involving 91 transplant centres performing>90% of China’s organ transplants.Main outcomes and measures Pharmacy items and duration provided to patients by pharmacists at each transplant centre and used to calculate full-time equivalents (FTEs).Results Service provision varied substantially across centres, with only 0.8 pharmacists per 100 transplant patients nationally. Current workforce require 2.6 FTEs/100 transplants for comprehensive services, reducible to 1.2 FTEs if non-clinical duties are excluded. Key challenges included service inconsistency, limited patient coverage and inadequate standardisation/digitalisation. Primary barriers were excessive non-service workloads and insufficient performance incentives. Addressing these issues is an effective way to change the current status of pharmacy services for transplant recipients in China.Conclusions A national workforce survey revealed significant gaps in transplant pharmacy services in China, particularly in standardisation and digitalisation. To address these issues, key steps include reducing non-essential workloads for transplant clinical pharmacists, enhancing performance incentives, expanding the number of transplant pharmacists and developing standardised service protocols.Data are available upon reasonable request. The data sets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available considering the privacy but are available from the corresponding author on a reasonable request.