How our care home pharma scheme saved £98 per patient

Really pleased to see this article which seems to reflect the article of mine that was published in Clinical Pharmacist this month also: http://www.pjonline.com/clinical-pharmacist/2011_sep/MR_MOP_clean_up_medicines_use_care_homes

To show two different areas of thew country using pharmacist in care home reviews (and am sure there are more) that this is a beneficial service to be commissioned by GPs - to improve patient care but also improve cost effciencies.

"The following data were collected by the medicines management care home team as part of the MR MOP project in NHS Surrey. Savings are attributed to reduced waste, changing medicines to more cost-effective options and stopping unnecessary medicines. The figures do not include savings made from reducing hospital admissions or use of out-of-hours services, etc.

Between April 2009 and March 2010, 750 patients were reviewed in 34 care homes, with £123,137 in annual recurring savings achieved.

Between April 2010 and March 2011, 821 patients were reviewed in 32 care homes, with £81,865 annual recurring savings achieved .

On average three recommendations or interventions were made per patient
Stopping a medicine accounted for 30% of interventions.

Providing advice or improving instructions for administration accounted for 9% of interventions.

When categorised by British National Formulary chapter, interventions were mainly for CNS medicines (24%), followed by gastrointestinal (16%) and cardiovascular (16%).

Depending on the care home, up to 7% of interventions were classed as “very significant” and may have prevented hospital admissions . "