The economic impact of a clinical pharmacist’s involvement in the hospital medicines policy in a rural area

Abstract

Current trends in healthcare expenditures suggest an increase at alarmingly high rates. In Europe, the majority of the European Union (EU) Member States recorded a higher healthcare expenditure in 2016 compared with 2011. This trend was most pronounced in Estonia, where a 45.3% higher expenditure in 2016 was recorded, compared with 2011. 1 Considering the United States' of America (USA) total health care spending increased from an estimated $1.4 trillion [13.3% of gross domestic product (GDP)] in 1996 to an estimated $3.1 trillion (17.9% of GDP) in 2016. 2 The pharmaceutical expenditure accounts roughly for one-quarter of all healthcare expenditure, and is a significant driver of rising healthcare cost. 3 In Croatia average increase in expenditure for medicines from 2015 to 2019 was 9.8% annually. Even more worrisome is the increase of 15.5% in 2019 compared with 2018. 4 To optimise investment in medicines, hospitals design a hospital medicines policy and use tendering and negotiation processes.The European Parliament approved the new Directive on public procurement in 2014, to provide equal access with fair competition for public contracts within the EU market. 5 Currently, the lowest price procurement strategy, with generic prescribing included, is the most commonly used method by governments and hospitals in optimising investments in medicines. 6

Global research trends and hotspots in pharmaceutical care: a bibliometric analysis and visualisation using CiteSpace and VOSviewer

“…Pharmaceutical care interventions provided by pharmacists can solve 90% of pharmacy-related problems 48. The participation of clinical pharmacists in the hospital drug policy of rural hospitals can optimise drug investment and save a lot of medical costs for the medical system 49…”

“…48 The participation of clinical pharmacists in the hospital drug policy of rural hospitals can optimise drug investment and save a lot of medical costs for the medical system. 49 It can also be seen from figures 5 and 6 that the popularity of the research topic clustering 4-16 is gradually decreasing, as is also the development process of the research topic from near to far over time-for example, a patient satisfaction questionnaire for outpatient pharmacy based on the assessment of feasibility and sustainability of pharmaceutical care provided (#4 ambulatory care pharmacy service), 50 formulating pharmaceutical care measures to solve problems related to drug treatment of inpatients in internal medicine (#5 drug-related morbidity), 51 pharmaceutical care intervention is crucial to establish a good medical relationship, and affects the treatment and care outcomes of the elderly 52 . However, there may be future research hotspots which also require further exploration by pharmacists with rich professional knowledge and clinical experience.…”

Recommendations for wider adoption of clinical pharmacy in Central and Eastern Europe in order to optimise pharmacotherapy and improve patient outcomes

“…Medication reconciliation research from hospital setting shows clinical pharmacists detect medication discrepancies and prevent adverse patient outcomes at admission, as well as help reduce unintentional discrepancies associated with potential harm at discharge ( Marinović et al, 2016 ; 2021 ). Clinical and hospital pharmacists in Croatia have proven that their involvement in the hospital medicines policy leads to substantial cost savings for the healthcare system ( Javor et al, 2021 ).…”