Cost Awareness and Containment : OPD Pharmaceutical Services of a Speciality Hospital

A major share of the hospital budget gets consumed in maintaining its pharmacy services. The cost consumption pattern of different group of medicines is directly related to the prescription load and prescription pattern. The Medical Officers and specialists of the hospital have got all important role in rational prescription in term of current therapeutics and saving on over prescription. A study carried out in a tertiary level super-speciality hospital indicated that the total cost of medicine per OPD day and cost of antibiotics work out to be Rs. 45291 and Rs. 11974 on an average, respectively. The average cost per prescription of OPD was up to Rs. 123.75.