Pharmacy-laboratory interactions: a unique method to control antibiotic costs.
Because a large percentage of hospital antibiotic use is regarded as inappropriate, hospital pharmacists must investigate ways of decreasing such usage. A unique approach was evaluated for its impact on cost-effective antibiotic therapy. By functioning as a team, the pharmacy and laboratory departments implemented the following steps: cost-code index on antimicrobial susceptibility and organism identification reports; suppression of cost-ineffective antibiotics within the same pharmacologic group from the antimicrobial susceptibility reports; design of minimum inhibitory concentration panels to conform to the hospital formulary; daily delivery of the antimicrobial susceptibility reports to the pharmacy. Of the 1078 documented therapeutic interventions by the clinical pharmacist, 100 were randomly selected for review, 62% of which involved direct interaction with the laboratory. Estimated cost savings due to these interactions were $8214; annual savings were $88,554. The results of this study show the importance of pharmacy departments forming and maintaining lines of communication with the hospital laboratory department.
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003363:Cost Control / Q000379:methods; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000191:economics*; D006745:Hospital Bed Capacity, 300 to 499; D006801:Humans; D015274:Interdepartmental Relations; D007755:Laboratories, Hospital / Q000191:economics*; D009820:Ohio; D010348:Patient Care Team; D010607:Pharmacy Service, Hospital / Q000191:economics*; D011641:Public Relations