Inpatient Insulin Pen Implementation, Waste, and Potential Cost Savings: A Community Hospital Experience

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Clinical Pharmacy
• Patient Safety

Background:

• Insulin pen injectors facilitate patient self-administration of insulin.
• Duplicate or unnecessary insulin pen dispensation increases healthcare costs.
• Hospitalized patients can utilize insulin pens for learning self-management skills.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze inpatient insulin pen dispensation patterns.
• To identify and quantify unnecessary insulin pen waste.
• To implement interventions to reduce waste and associated costs.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of insulin pen dispensation in a community hospital (July 2018-July 2019).
• Calculation of unnecessary pen dispensation rates and associated costs.
• Implementation of a pharmacist-led task force with hospital-wide education and interventions.

Main Results:

• Over 9,500 insulin pens dispensed to over 3,100 patients.
• Significant overuse identified for insulin aspart (1.2 needed vs. 2.2 dispensed) and glargine (1.3 needed vs. 2.1 dispensed).
• Interventions led to a significant decrease in pens dispensed per patient, resulting in an estimated annual cost saving of $66,261.

Conclusions:

• Identifying causes of unnecessary insulin dispensation is key.
• Hospital-wide staff education and targeted interventions effectively changed dispensing practices.
• Reduced insulin pen waste led to substantial cost savings and supported diabetes self-management education.