The role of the pharmacist in the determination of pharmacotheraphy costs: Ischemic cardiopathy patients with smoking habits

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Ripari, Nadia Vanina | Vega, Elena Maria | Elorza, María Eugenia | Moscoso, Nebel Silvana | Santiago, Daniel Palma | Budassi, Nadia

Affiliations: CONICET – Universidad Nacional del Sur, Buenos Aires, Argentina | Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina | CONICET – Universidad Nacional del Sur, Buenos Aires, Argentina | CONICET – Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina | Universidad Nacional del Sur, Hospital Provincial Dr. José Penna, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Note: [] Corresponding author. Tel.: +54 291 4595101 2740; E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: In the last decades the pharmacist has played a main role in the policies of costs containment in the health sector. The present study has been designed to assess this role in the costs containment of the pharmacological treatments of patients at a Coronary Care Unit (CCU) of a public hospital in Argentina, through an analitic and retrospective study. It has been observed that the pharmacist could determine in all the service a saving of $ 3,393.03 buying the prescriptive drugs at minimum prices during the analized period. However, it has been proved that there are costs which the pharmacist cannot modify, as in the case of certain risk factors that may increase the pharmacological costs in the treatment of a pathology. This cost variation has been proved in ischemic cardiopathy patients with smoking habits.

Keywords: Role of the pharmacist, costs containment, ischemic cardiopathy, smoking habits

DOI: 10.3233/PPL-2010-0305

Journal: Pharmaceuticals, Policy and Law, vol. 12, no. 3-4, pp. 313-319, 2010