Cost-outcome description of clinical pharmacist interventions in a university teaching hospital

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Date
2014-04-17
Authors
Gallagher, James
Byrne, Stephen
Woods, Noel
Lynch, Deirdre
McCarthy, Suzanne
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Volume Title
Publisher
Biomed Central Ltd.
Published Version
10.1186/1472-6963-14-177
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Abstract
Background: Pharmacist interventions are one of the pivotal parts of a clinical pharmacy service within a hospital. This study estimates the cost avoidance generated by pharmacist interventions due to the prevention of adverse drug events (ADE). The types of interventions identified are also analysed. Methods: Interventions recorded by a team of hospital pharmacists over a one year time period were included in the study. Interventions were assigned a rating score, determined by the probability that an ADE would have occurred in the absence of an intervention. These scores were then used to calculate cost avoidance. Net cost benefit and cost benefit ratio were the primary outcomes. Categories of interventions were also analysed. Results: A total cost avoidance of €708,221 was generated. Input costs were calculated at €81,942. This resulted in a net cost benefit of €626,279 and a cost benefit ratio of 8.64: 1. The most common type of intervention was the identification of medication omissions, followed by dosage adjustments and requests to review therapies. Conclusion: This study provides further evidence that pharmacist interventions provide substantial cost avoidance to the healthcare payer. There is a serious issue of patient’s regular medication being omitted on transfer to an inpatient setting in Irish hospitals.
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Keywords
Hospital pharmacy , Adverse drug events , Health care economics , Ireland , Clinical pharmacy services , Cost avoidance
Citation
GALLAGHER, J., BYRNE, S., WOODS, N., LYNCH, D. & MCCARTHY, S. 2014. Cost-outcome description of clinical pharmacist interventions in a university teaching hospital. BMC Health Services Research, 14: 177, 1-8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-14-177
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https://hdl.handle.net/10468/2232
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Pharmacy - Journal Articles
Centre for Policy Studies - Journal Articles
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© Gallagher et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://​creativecommons.​org/​licenses/​by/​2.​0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://​creativecommons.​org/​publicdomain/​zero/​1.​0/​) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.