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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| The cost effectiveness of a pharmacist reviewing medication among the elderly in the community | | Author(s) | Anthony Harris, Elena Gospodarevskaya, Jennifer Callaghan |
| Journal title | Australasian Journal on Ageing, vol 20, no 4, December 2001 |
| Pages | pp 179-186 |
| Keywords | Drugs ; Referrals ; Cost effectiveness ; Living in the community ; Evaluation ; Australia. |
| Annotation | The quality of life and cost of health and social services for a cohort of older patients seen by an aged care assessment team (ACAT) was measured at initial referral and at 1 month follow-up. Sites in Melbourne and Ballarat were chosen and analysed separately. A second subsequent cohort was assessed by a team which included a pharmacist who provided advice to the team and the patient's general practitioner (GP). Patients seen by an ACAT had a quality of life (QOL) considerably below full health. Overall, there was no significant change on quality of life in either group by either measure. The additional cost of the pharmacist was less than A$77 per patient. Compared to no intervention, there was some evidence of an increase in the cost of prescription pharmaceuticals, and a reduction in home care assistance and medical care cost in Melbourne, but not in Ballarat. Cost data were highly skewed, however, making statistical tests of cost differences problematic. The addition of a pharmacist may be cost reducing in some settings, especially if in-patient episodes for assessment and treatment can be avoided; the study was unable to demonstrate a statistically significant reduction in overall costs associated with pharmacist review and advice. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-020228212 A |
| Classmark | LLD: L5R: WEC: K4: 4C: 7YA |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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