Documentation of clinical and cost-saving pharmacy interventions in the emergency room

Hospital pharmacists have shown clearly their benefit in patient care by intervening to improve the drug use process. In this era of cost containment, hospital administrators are likely to fund only those programs that clearly improve patient care or reduce costs. To demonstrate the impact on a hospital budget and to justify a position or service, documentation of improvement and generation of a cost-savings report is essential. This article discusses the types and methods of clinical and cost-saving interventions that are made in a busy inner city university trauma center's emergency department, and the methods by which our data are collected.