[Internal invoicing of end products manufactured by a hospital Pharmacy Department]

OBJECTIVE: To calculate actual costs of end products manufactured by a Pharmacy Department. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Quality standards, overall production in relative value units (RVUs), and complexity degree of a pharmacy department are assessed. Actual cost of RVUs and manufactured end products is calculated. RESULTS: The Pharmacy Department is classified as quality level II. The total number of produced RVUs is 2,334,355.86, with a complexity degree of 2.20 and a cost per RVU of 0.87 euros. Pharmacy Department cost imputation per RVU has relevant discrepancies when compared to traditional shared cost systems regarding drug consumption. CONCLUSIONS: The inclusion of a product catalogue within Pharmacy Departments allows overall and department-specific activities to be acknowledged, as well as mean complexity, strengths and issues in need of improvement, in order to include them within pharmacy department planning. Furthermore, it allows for more realistic product charging to requesting departments.