Critical Care Explorations · 4 authors, 5 centres
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A multicenter prospective observational study of 19 pediatric pharmacists across five U.S. hospitals documented 1,458 accepted interventions on 861 critically ill pediatric patients, generating an estimated $450,590 in cost avoidance. The potential annualized cost avoidance per pharmacist was $965,550, yielding a cost-avoidance-to-salary ratio between 1.5:1 and 5.2:1.
Nineteen pediatric clinical pharmacists at five academic and community U.S. hospitals completed 112 shifts during August 2018 through January 2019, documenting interventions on 861 critically ill pediatric patients. A total of 1,458 interventions were accepted (97.8% acceptance rate) across six categories, with individualization of patient care accounting for 61.6% of interventions. The associated total cost avoidance was $450,590, averaging $309 per intervention, $523 per patient, and $4,023 per pharmacist shift. The annualized potential cost avoidance per pharmacist was $965,550, yielding a cost-to-salary ratio of 5.2:1; when restricted to five most validated intervention categories, the ratio was 1.5:1. Limitations include the use of a published framework for cost avoidance estimation rather than measured cost savings, and conservative classification of adverse drug events, which may have resulted in underappreciation of actual cost avoidance. The need for research on the impact of pharmacist interventions on clinical outcomes remains.
