Replacing the route of administration of medicines: pharmaceutical resident activity and costs savings

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the resource saving generated by the work of pharmaceutical residents from the substitution of the drug administration route in an adult intensive care unit of a public tertiary hospital. Materials and Methods: We performed prescribing analysis regarding the possibility of recommending replacement of the route of administration, following the criteria: oral tolerance of the patient, proper bioavailability of the drug, and absence of factors that could affect the gastrointestinal absorption of the drug. If the criteria were identified, we performed an intervention with the medical team and documented in an Excel® worksheet, as well as the acceptance of the intervention, characterized by the change in prescription. We only considered the direct costs of acquisition of the drugs and products related to its administration. We estimated the economics for each patient based on the expenses associated with the consumption of medications per day, in three different periods (3, 5 and 10 days). Results: During this study, we identified 347 records of pharmaceutical interventions to replace the drug administration route. The overall acceptance of interventions was 78.7%. The estimate of costs savings ranged from R$ 6678,60 (3 days) to R$ 22262,00 (10 days). Conclusion: Despite limitations imposed by restrictive criteria to interventions, it was possible to evidence the high acceptance of the interventions and to demonstrate the potential of the residents’ work to save resources.