Effects of Kampo Therapy for Inpatient on Medical Economics

Abstract

We investigated prescriptions and drug costs at admission and discharge for 35 patients hospitalized in Department of Japanese Oriental (Kampo) Medicine, Chiba University Hospital from September 2006 to October 2008. They recovered after Kampo therapy from various non-acute diseases. The number of western drugs decreased from 3.7 at admission to 2.7 at discharge, thus their drug costs per day significantly decreased from 302.1 yen to 227.6 yen. The cost of Kampo medicines themselves, on the other hand, did not decrease significantly. Total drug costs, however, were significantly reduced from 437.8 yen at admission to 348.0 yen at discharge, so patients' overall costs were reduced by 20%. These results indicated that the proper use of Kampo medicine for various diseases would reduce drug costs and the impact of treatment expenses on medical economics, with improvement in disease outcomes. medical economics, Kampo medicine, drug costs, medical expenses, inpatient treatment

Efficiently prepared ephedrine alkaloids-free Ephedra Herb extract: a putative marker and antiproliferative effects

“…It has been reported that therapeutic regimens using Kampo medicines reduce the drug cost for patients compared with therapy using modern medicines [ 20 – 22 ]. Therefore, the relatively low cost of Kampo prescriptions is expected to have a considerable positive economic impact on cancer therapy, which frequently involves the use of expensive patented medicines.…”