Antibiotic cost control measures in a hospital pharmacy

Faced with rising drug costs and an increase in type-1 beta-lactamase resistance, hospitals have been looking for ways to contain antibiotic costs while continuing to provide quality medical care. The hospital pharmacy at Montefiore Medical Center, Moses Division, has developed a number of programs aimed at identifying antibiotic prescribing trends and minimizing costs. An antimicrobial susceptibility cascade reporting (ASCR) system is used to consolidate and target antimicrobial susceptibility information available to the staff physicians. All antibiotics are tested in the microbiology laboratory for susceptibility; however, physicians receive susceptibility reports only for the more cost-effective, conventional antibiotics. Broader-spectrum, more powerful, and usually more expensive antibiotics are not reported with the ASCR system unless resistance to the more cost-effective antibiotics is noted. Two other reforms initiated are expansion of the pharmacy-based intravenous additive program to include antibiotics and the implementation of a drug therapy enhancement program authorizing automatic conversion by the pharmacist of targeted drug regimens to more clinically rational, cost-effective regimens.