The burden of cost- admission versus discharge medications

Abstract

Sir, Avoiding unnecessary polypharmacy prevents potential drug-drug interactions culminating in adverse drug events. 1 Medication review is an important opportunity for rationalizing a patientâ s treatment to maximize therapy for established chronic disease and minimize the potential for drug-drug and drug-disease interaction. A secondary consideration is the potential for a drug review to identify the possibility of cost saving by noting those occasions where generic substitution could occur without detriment to the patients overall therapy. We completed an audit of drug costs of medications for patients on admission and on discharge from an acute general hospital. The charts of the first 94 medical patients admitted into an acute general hospital starting from January 1st 2012 were sourced from Hospital In-Patient Enquiry (HIPE) and a pre-designed questionnaire was completed for each of these patients. The cost of medications per patient was calculated using the MIMMS manual appropriate for the period of admission and discharge. We examined the patient demographics, source of referral, LOS (length of stay), admission diagnosis, past medical history and names of medications and their individual costs.