Impact of the oral chemotherapy pharmacist on direct cost avoidance and cost savings of oral oncolytics at an integrated health system.

Authors

null

Analia Nguyen

Kaiser Permanente, San Diego, CA

Organizations

Kaiser Permanente, San Diego, CA

Research Funding

No funding received

Background: The impact of oncology pharmacists on patient care have been well-documented including enhanced medication safety and efficacy, increased medication adherence, improved provider and clinic burden, and increased patient and provider satisfaction. There is a scarcity of articles relating to pharmacists’ drug cost savings or cost avoidance of oncologic drugs in an oral chemotherapy management clinic within an integrated healthcare system. Cost savings and cost avoidance studies are needed to reinforce this practice and gain support and funding from hospital administration. Methods: This retrospective, observational study analyzed interventions made by oncology pharmacists in the Pharmacist-Managed Oral Chemotherapy Clinic at Kaiser Permanente San Diego and determine the direct drug cost savings and cost avoidance effects over one year. Cost savings and cost avoidance were calculated by comparing the costs of drug utilization if no interventions were implemented versus costs of drug saved from accepted interventions for dose reduction, dose delay, temporary dose hold, therapy discontinuation, therapy conversion, formulary alternative conversion, and brand to generic conversion. Secondary outcomes included the highest and average cost avoidance per intervention, intervention type, medication, medication class, and cancer type. Additionally, interventions that did not lead to direct drug cost savings such as adverse drug reaction management, drug interaction identification, and supportive care recommendation were also recorded. The secondary endpoint was oncologist satisfaction via a six-question satisfaction survey. All documented oncology pharmacist interventions that were made in the Oral Chemotherapy Clinic from January 1 to December 31, 2021 were reviewed for study inclusion. From a report generated monthly from the electronic health record (EHR), retrospective chart review was conducted to verify whether each cost-savings intervention was truly recommended by an oncology pharmacist and if the intervention was accepted by the treating oncologist. The Average Wholesale Price (AWP) of drugs listed on Lexicomp as of November 1, 2021 was used to calculate the drug cost savings and cost avoidance. During this period, there were no changes to practice and no increased efforts to identify interventions. Results: As of September 2021, 156 interventions were identified, with a total cost savings and cost avoidance of $2,245,856. Once all data have been collected for the remainder of 2021, descriptive statistics will be used to analyze and stratify the data as appropriate. Conclusions: Pharmacist interventions in the Oral Chemotherapy Clinic led to significant overall cost savings to the health care system. It is reasonable to expect that higher cost savings will be achieved as more oral chemotherapy agents are managed by pharmacists.

Disclaimer

This material on this page is ©2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology, all rights reserved. Licensing available upon request. For more information, please contact licensing@asco.org

Abstract Details

Meeting

2022 ASCO Annual Meeting

Session Type

Publication Only

Session Title

Health Services Research and Quality Improvement

Track

Quality Care/Health Services Research

Sub Track

Value/Cost of Care

Citation

J Clin Oncol 40, 2022 (suppl 16; abstr e18839)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2022.40.16_suppl.e18839

Abstract #

e18839

Abstract Disclosures

Similar Abstracts

Abstract

2023 ASCO Quality Care Symposium

Safe and reliable inpatient chemotherapy administration: Impact of an ambulatory oncology pharmacist.

First Author: Mary Yousef

Abstract

2022 ASCO Annual Meeting

Market determinants of commercial prices for intravenous chemotherapy infusions.

First Author: Michael Milligan

First Author: Angel W. Liu

First Author: Puneeth Indurlal