Methods of documenting cost savings associated with an antibiotic management program

Documenting the financial impact of an antibiotic management program is important for demonstrating the value of these pharmacy-driven or interdisciplinary services. There are several cost-saving methods that may be utilized in justifying such programs. These include intervention analysis, drug purchasing comparisons, specific agent tracking, patient length of stay analysis, and evaluation of antimicrobial therapy for a specific disease state. Several of these methods have been utilized for successfully documenting the financial impact generated by our institutions antibiotic management program.