OBJECTIVES: To describe cost savings of operational waste through a value-based patient drug safety program in a Colombian pharmaceutical benefit manager.

METHODS: A descriptive observational study, conducted between May 2021 - May 2022 in patients diagnosed with high-cost chronic pathologies. The pharmacists reviewed the patient prescriptions before dispensing their medications to identify and manage operational wasteful in an articulated way between the insurer's health and the pharmaceutical benefit manager. A univariate analysis was performed, with summary measures of central tendency and relative and cumulative frequencies. R Core Team statistical package (2019) was used.

RESULTS: 5755 patients were managed with a mean age of 59 years (SD: 18) and 61.0% were women. Operational wasteful was identified and managed in 1.8% of the patients evaluated, representing 2955426.53 USD (246285.54 USD an average month). The main causes of operational waste were 36.7% authorizations of drugs that had already been previously suspended by the treating physician, 24.1% prescriptions error, 17.2% drug authorization error, 10.1% redundant prescriptions, 4.2% deceased patient with prescription, 3.9% patient’s non-adherence, 3.3% patients who still do not correspond delivery. The acceptance rate of the interventions was 100% because the interventions are direct with the platform of the insurer's health.

CONCLUSIONS: The value-based patient drug safety program allows for the identification and management of operational waste generating savings for the health system resources and is more efficient when there is an articulation between the insurer health and the pharmaceutical benefit manager.