Journal of Applied Pharmacy
Open Access

Abstract

Emergency Hospital Drug Cabinet Systems Managed by Hospital Pharmacists and ER Physicians: A Healthcare Management Model to Reduce Costs

Luisetto M and Nili-Ahmadabadi B

In hospital setting patients drug therapy are administered in continuous way: every night and day, every day in a year and in order to assure the continuity of a pharmacological treatment we have to make sure to have a pharmacy systems that provide drugs in continuous way. Background: When hospital pharmacies are closed night-time or during weekend, in order to provide emergency service or dispense drugs, a 24-h pharmacist service (or on call) have been often used. Several pharmacists may be involved in this kind of service, generally from 4 to 6, and this is a cost for some hospital and institutions or government. A solution to cut or reduce such cost as an alternative service, without any risk to the safety of patients can be an interesting innovation in today’s healthcare. Motivation: Often the cost is not the only problem; in addition to that, those long hours were putting the pharmacist under pressure in covering the service. If we decide to introduce new systems then the most important thing to cover all the emergency case is to choose a small list of the most important drugs to put in emergency cabinets in order to cover the most critical cases. Since the number of the drugs available in a hospital pharmacy is too big for a cabinet. Problem Statement: In this works, we analyze some article in biomedical database and guideline and we submit to the institution a management system to overtake the pharmacist. Presence during nighttime or in weekend, and were make also an economic evaluation in cost reducing using this system.