Economic Impact and Cost Benefit of the Inpatient Clinical Pharmacist Interventions in Cancer Care Units

Background: Clinical pharmacists play a key role in ensuring the optimum use of cancer medicines. Yet, the economic benefit of this role has never been assessed in Qatar. Aim: To evaluate the overall economic impact of clinical pharmacist interventions in the main cancer care setting in Qatar. Methods: From the public healthcare perspective, this was an analysis of the total economic benefit and a cost-benefit analysis of the clinical pharmacy interventions. As a study sample size, patient records in March 2018, July/August 2018, and January 2019 were retrospectively reviewed at the National Center for Cancer Care & Research (NCCCR), Qatar. The total benefit from interventions was the total of the cost avoidance due to preventable adverse drug events (ADEs) plus the cost savings associated with therapeutic interventions. The interventions cost was based on salary and increased cost due to therapeutic interventions. The cost-benefit analysis results were presented via net benefit and benefit‐to‐cost ratio measures. Results : Total of 1,352 interventions occurred during the 3-month follow-up period. The total benefit was QAR 196,010,360 (USD53,834,206), constituting cost avoidance of QAR 194,764,534 (USD 53,492,040) and cost savings of QAR 1,245,826 (USD 342,166), mostly due to recommending additional medications and the medication dose reduction. The benefit-to-cost ratio was 174:1 and the annual net benefit was QAR 779,539,440 (USD 214,100,351). Sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of results. Conclusion: The clinical pharmacist intervention is a cost-beneficial practice in the NCCCR setting, associated with ADEs prevention and substantial economic benefits, including relative to the interventions cost.