Impact of a pharmacist on drug costs in a coronary care unit

The impact of clinical pharmacy services on direct drug costs in a coronary care unit (CCU) was studied. An observational, nonrandomized study was conducted on all patients admitted to the CCU to evaluate the impact of clinical pharmacy services on direct drug costs. Clinical pharmacy services were introduced into the CCU in July 1998. Patient characteristics, mean drug costs per admission, mean drug category costs per admission, and total hospital costs per admission were determined for October 1997 to June 1998 (nonintervention period), July 1998 to March 1999 (intervention period 1), and April 1999 to December 1999 (intervention period 2). The Clini-Trend program was used to estimate the total reduction in drug costs associated with documented pharmacist interventions from January to December 1999. Mean patient age, sex, admitting diagnosis-related group, Medicare case-mix index, ventilator days, length of stay, and number of deaths did not differ significantly among the three study periods. Mean ± S.D. drug costs per admission for the nonintervention period were $374.05 ± $75.51. With the introduction of clinical pharmacy services, mean ± S.D. drug costs per admission were $381.94 ± $66.16 (p > 0.1 for intervention period 1 compared with the nonintervention period) and $233.74 ± $84.16 (p = 0.002 for intervention period 2 compared with the nonintervention period). From January to December 1999, 4151 pharmacist interventions were documented. The estimated reduction in drug costs associated with the interventions totaled $372,384. A pharmacist's clinical services in the CCU allowed for significant estimated reductions in total drug costs.