Abstract
The authors' hospital embarked on a three-component, multidisciplinary, hospital-based antimicrobial use program to cut costs and reduce inappropriate antimicrobial use. Initially, antimicrobial use patterns and costs were monitored for 12 months. For the next two years, an antimicrobial use program was implemented consisting of three strategies: automatic therapeutic interchanges; antimicrobial restriction policies; and parenteral to oral conversion. The program resulted in a reduction in the antimicrobial portion of the total pharmacy drug budget from 41.6% to 28.2%. Simultaneously, the average cost per dose per patient day dropped from $11.88 in 1991 to $10.16 in 1994. Overall, mean monthly acquisition cost savings rose from $6,810 in 1992 to $27,590 in 1994. This study demonstrates that a multidisciplinary antimicrobial use program in a Canadian hospital can effect dramatic cost savings and serve as a quality assurance activity of physician antimicrobial prescribing behaviour.
Highlights
The authors’ hospital embarked on a three-component, multidisciplinary, hospital-based antimicrobial use program to cut costs and reduce inappropriate antimicrobial use
This study demonstrates that a multidisciplinary antimicrobial use program in a Canadian hospital can effect dramatic cost savings and serve as a quality assurance activity of physician antimicrobial prescribing behaviour
Historically, quality assurance in hospitals has always been of paramount importance
Summary
The authors’ hospital embarked on a three-component, multidisciplinary, hospital-based antimicrobial use program to cut costs and reduce inappropriate antimicrobial use. This study demonstrates that a multidisciplinary antimicrobial use program in a Canadian hospital can effect dramatic cost savings and serve as a quality assurance activity of physician antimicrobial prescribing behaviour. Programme hospitalier pluridisciplinaire d’antibiothérapie : impact sur les dépenses de la pharmacie de l’hôpital et sur l’emploi des médicaments. Pendant les deux années suivantes, un programme d’antibiothérapie comportant trois stratégies a été mis en application : substitution thérapeutique automatique, politique de restriction des antibiotiques et conversion de la voie parentérale à la voie orale. Cette étude démontre qu’un programme d’utilisation pluridisciplinaire des antibiotiques dans un hôpital canadien peut amener des économies considérables en terme de coûts et servir de mesure d’assurance de la qualité lorsqu’il est question des habitudes d’ordonnance des médecins en matière d’antibiothérapie. Concerns about antimicrobial resistance [1,2,3] with the subsequent development of nosocomial infection [8] and cost containment issues [4,5,6] have accelerated the development of such strategies
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