DIRECT COST OF DRUG AND PRESCRIBING PATTERN IN THE OUTPATIENT SERVICES OF A TEACHING HOSPITAL IN MALAYSIA

Objective: This study aims to impute the direct drug cost and to assess the prescribing pattern on patients getting dyslipidemia drugs at outpatients’ Pharmacy Department in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC). Methods: Patients receiving at least one dyslipidemia drug were randomly selected from UKMMC pharmacy electronic prescribing system from January 2012 to December 2012. The patients’ gender, age, and ethnic, and all the drugs received by the patients during the visits were recorded. The brand name of the drugs and the cost was recorded for the calculation of generic drug prescription rate (GDPR) and direct drug cost. Results: A total of 380 patients were randomly selected from the system. There were 829 prescriptions with the total amount of 5512 drugs prescribed. From the total of drugs, the number of generic drugs prescribed was 3967 (72%). The percentage of patients with GDPR of more than 75% for this study was 48% (n=183). The total drug cost for all 380 patients was RM240,244. The mean cost for each patient was RM637 (Range: RM1.20– RM27,972.30) and the median cost was RM233. The total formulary dyslipidemia drugs cost was RM11,003. The mean formulary dyslipidemia drugs cost for each patient was RM38 (Range: RM1.20–RM810), and the median cost was RM13.50. Predictors of high drug cost were GDPR of ≤75% and a number of drugs per prescription of >10. Conclusion: This study could contribute toward short- and long-term strategies to reduce the drug cost expenditure of dyslipidemia drugs in the hospital.