IN-PHARMACY professional pharmacy services, including medication use reviews (MURs) delivered in community pharmacies, are more cost effective than those delivered in patient's homes, research reveals.
The meta-analysis, published in PharmacoEconomics, found interventions delivered by community pharmacists represented good value for money by improving patient outcomes while being either cost-saving or cost-effective.
Pharmacy Guild of Australia National President, George Tambassis, told Pharmacy Daily that interventions delivered in community pharmacies for adults, with or at risk of developing acute illness and medical emergencies, appear to be cost-effective.
These findings reinforced the Guild's view that home medication reviews (HMRs) ideally should be conducted in community pharmacies, he explained.
"The report's finding that 'interventions delivered in the patients' own homes are unlikely to be cost-effective' further highlights the need for these services to be conducted within the pharmacy setting," Tambassis added.
"HMRs are a very important evidence-based medication management support service which help to achieve Quality Use of Medicines outcomes.
"The Guild believes that there is a need to reconnect the HMR program with community pharmacies, a connection weakened with the introduction of the direct referral system.
"This reconnection will help to provide a more holistic service for patients and ensure that the critical link between the supply of medicines and their effective management is not lost.
"As indicated in the report, having these services delivered from community pharmacies would also help to ensure that the program provides value for taxpayers and that services are provided appropriately to patients."
One UK study included in the analysis found there was no difference in outcomes for community pharmacist interventions delivered in general practices by prescribing and non-prescribing pharmacists.
However, interventions delivered by prescribing pharmacists were not cost-effective compared with those provided by non-prescribing pharmacists.
"One finding worth noting that the intervention was more cost-effective when clinical pharmacists provided interventions compared with when community pharmacists did, indicating that community pharmacists would need more training in terms of their clinical skills, and more time to integrate into the GP practice team in order to realise the benefit of their adoption of practice-based roles," the authors said.
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