Economic and safety benefits of pharmaceutical interventions by community and hospital pharmacists in Japan

Yuichi Tasaka, Daiki Yasunaga, Mamoru Tanaka, Akihiro Tanaka, Takashige Asakawa, Ikuo Horio, Yoshiro Miyauchi, Hiroaki Araki

Background Pharmaceutical interventions by community and hospital pharmacists can improve medication safety and result in financial savings. Their effect has not been fully explored in Japan. Objective To evaluate the economic and safety contributions of various pharmaceutical interventions by community and hospital pharmacists in Japan. Setting Two hospitals and eight community pharmacies in Ehime Prefecture, Japan, in 2014-2015. Method Pharmacists entered data about pharmaceutical interventions via the internet, and the data were divided into 11 types of interventions. The economic impact was estimated based on the rate of avoidance of serious adverse drug reactions and the monetary cost of these reactions in the Japanese compensation system. The cost saving from adjusting prescriptions to take account of unused prescription drugs was calculated using drug prices from the national health insurance scheme. Main outcome measure The number of pharmaceutical interventions and their economic impact. Results The total cost savings from 500 to 509 pharmaceutical interventions by community and hospital pharmacists were US$207,126.6 and US$592,840, respectively. Community pharmacists mainly intervened to correct prescription errors. They also adjusted 135 prescriptions to take account of unused prescription drugs. This potentially improved patients' adherence and contributed to effective use of medication. Pharmaceutical interventions by hospital pharmacists facilitated avoidance of 10 serious adverse drug reactions, and included 42 transvenous antimicrobial therapy interventions, 88 interventions in cancer chemotherapy, and 47 monitoring recommendations. Hospital pharmacists helped improve patients' quality of life using more aggressive interventions besides correcting prescription errors. Over half of pharmaceutical interventions by community and hospital pharmacists contributed to avoidance of adverse drug reactions. Conclusion These results suggest the importance of pharmaceutical interventions by both community and hospital pharmacists in reducing increasing medical expenses and contributing to safety and effectiveness of medication. They also suggest that community and hospital pharmacists have different roles.