OBJECTIVES: Due to the constrained financial burden that the healthcare systems are currently facing, healthcare services need to demonstrate that they remain cost saving through proving continually the economic benefit of such services. We sought to evaluate the economic impact of interventions initiated by a clinical pharmacist in Women's Wellness and Research Center (WWRC) in Qatar.

METHODS: This is a retrospective study of interventions initiated by clinical pharmacists within a women’s health setting in Hamad Medical Corporation. The study included interventions that took place in March 2018, July-August 15, 2018, and January 2019. The economic impact was measured via calculating the total benefit, defined as the sum of the cost savings and the cost avoidance associated with the interventions. Cost savings was defined as the reduced cost of therapy because of the intervention by subtracting the cost of after-clinical pharmacy intervention therapy from the cost of before-clinical pharmacist intervention therapy, while cost avoidance was defined as eliminating a potential increase in the costs related to adverse drug events (ADEs), by multiplying the estimated probability of an ADE in the absence of the intervention by the cost of an ADE.

RESULTS: A total of 571 interventions were identified by the clinical pharmacists with the addition of a medication and discontinuation of a medication that is needed were the abundant intervention categories reported. The analysis projected a total benefit of QAR 564,475 (US$ 154,651), constituting cost avoidance of QAR 741,898 (US$203,260) and -ve resource-use cost savings of -QAR 177,423 (-US$ 48,609) over 3-month period. Clinical pharmacy interventions were robust in the sensitivity analyses.

CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates significant total benefits from clinical pharmacy interventions, due to prevention in ADEs among hospitalized patients admitted to WWRC. Potentially, investing costs on hiring clinical pharmacist may significantly outweigh the savings from inappropriate use of medicines.