OBJECTIVES: The economic benefit of the clinical pharmacist’s role in ensuring the optimum use of medicines is potentially considerable, particularly when it comes to critical care management. This study sought to evaluate the overall economic impact of clinical pharmacist interventions in the main Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in Qatar.

METHODS: From the public healthcare hospital perspective, this was a retrospective analysis of the total economic benefit of the clinical pharmacy interventions. Patient records in March 2018, July/August 2018, and January 2019 were retrospectively reviewed at the NICU of Women’s Wellness and Research Center in Hamad Medical Corporation. The total benefit from interventions was the total of cost avoidance due to preventable adverse drug events (ADEs) plus any cost savings associated with therapeutic-based resource use. 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. Cost avoidance was defined as eliminating a potential increase in the costs related to ADEs, by multiplying the estimated probability of an ADE in the absence of intervention by the cost of an ADE.

RESULTS: During the study period, a total of 310 interventions in the NICU were analyzed. The total population benefit was QAR 454,552 (USD 124,535), constituting cost avoidance of QAR 458,680 (USD 125,666) and -ve resource-use cost savings of -QAR 4,128 (-USD 1,131). The overall average of the total economic benefit is also calculated to be QAR 1,466 (USD 402) per intervention. The uncertainty analysis demonstrated the robustness of outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS: The clinical pharmacist intervention increased the resource use and its cost. In overall, however, taking avoided cost of ADEs in consideration, it is an economically beneficial practice in the NICU, associated with ADEs prevention and substantial economic benefits.