Inventi Impact: Pharmacy Practice

Inventi:ppp/20141/16

Does Pharmacist-supervised Intervention through Pharmaceutical Care Program Influence Direct\nHealthcare Cost Burden of Newly Diagnosed Diabetics in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Nepal:\nA Non-clinical Randomised Controlled Trial Approach

Background: Cost is a vital component for people with chronic diseases as treatment is expected to be long or\neven lifelong in some diseases. Pharmacist contributions in decreasing the healthcare cost burden of chronic\npatients are not well described due to lack of sufficient evidences worldwide. In developing countries like Nepal,\nthe estimation of direct healthcare cost burden among newly diagnosed diabetics is still a challenge for healthcare\nprofessionals, and pharmacist role in patient care is still theoretical and practically non-existent. This study reports\nthe impact of pharmacist-supervised intervention through pharmaceutical care program on direct healthcare costs\nburden of newly diagnosed diabetics in Nepal through a non-clinical randomised controlled trial approach.\nMethods: An interventional, pre-post non-clinical randomised controlled study was conducted among randomly\ndistributed 162 [control (n = 54), test 1 (n = 54) and test 2 (n = 54) groups] newly diagnosed diabetics by a\nconsecutive sampling method for 18 months. Direct healthcare costs (direct medical and non-medical costs) from\npatients perspective was estimated by ââ?¬Ë?bottom upââ?¬â?¢ approach to identify their out-of-pocket expenses (1USD = NPR\n73.38) before and after intervention at the baseline, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months follow-ups. Test groupsââ?¬â?¢ patients were\nnourished with pharmaceutical care intervention while control group patients only received care from physician/\nnurses. Non-parametric tests i.e. Friedman test, Mannââ?¬â??Whitney U test and Wilcoxon signed rank test were used to\nfind the differences in direct healthcare costs among the groups before and after the intervention (p ââ?°Â¤ 0.05).\nResults: Friedman test identified significant differences in direct healthcare cost of test 1 (p < 0.001) and test 2\n(p < 0.001) groups patients. However, Mannââ?¬â??Whitney U test justified significant differences in direct healthcare cost\nbetween control group and test 1 group, and test 2 group patients at 6-months (p = 0.009, p = 0.010 respectively),\n9-months (p = 0.005, p = 0.001 respectively) and 12-months (p < 0.001, p < 0.001 respectively). Conclusion: Pharmacist supervised intervention through pharmaceutical care program significantly decreased\ndirect healthcare costs of diabetics in test groups compared to control group and hence describes pharmacistââ?¬â?¢s\ncontribution in minimizing direct healthcare cost burden of patients