Hospital pharmacy
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The authors performed a study to document the impact of a clinical pharmacist on cost saving and cost avoidance in an intensive care unit, and to evaluate the cost saving and avoidance to justify additional clinical pharmacist positions. Over 13 consecutive 5-day weeks, a clinical pharmacist with 50% teaching responsibility documented time spent and all interventions that impacted the cost of drug therapy. Both cost avoidance and cost saving were documented on change in route, change in dosage, change to another drug, discontinuation of therapy, discontinuation of therapeutic duplication, discontinuation of inappropriate therapy, notification of pharmacy of discrepancy, and improper drug-level monitoring avoidance. ⋯ Although 31.3% of interventions involved change of dosage, interventions involving change to another drug (13.9%) had the largest economic impact ($62,527). The majority (85.4%) of the savings involved costs of medications saved (actual dollars saved rather than avoided). The authors concluded that the clinical pharmacist had a significant impact on the cost of drug therapy in the intensive care unit and that the cost of additional clinical pharmacist positions should be justified.
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The authors assessed the perceived pharmaceutical care needs of ambulatory pharmacy patients based on their demographic characteristics and desired service mix. A questionnaire was given to repeat ambulatory pharmacy patients for 30 consecutive weekdays during April and May 1992 to assess patient satisfaction with current and future services. A total of 152 surveys were completed by patients while waiting for prescriptions to be filled. ⋯ Current dispensing services were also viewed as highly satisfactory by a majority of respondents. However, some patients apparently need more information regarding convenience services. Such information helps establish a profile of ambulatory patients so that an optimal service mix can be provided.