Clinical and economic impact of pharmacist interventions on sampled outpatient prescriptions in a Chinese teaching hospital

Table 3 Cost-benefit analysis of prescription intervention by pharmacists

	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Hourly salary (Dollar)	4.10	4.66	5.22	5.75	6.31	6.47
Total pharmacist time (Hour) ^a	1216	1216	1216	1216	1216	1216
Time for reviewing and contacting (Hour) (4 h per working day*250 working days per year)	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000	1000
Time for summarizing and analyzing (Hour) (16 h per month *12 months per year)	192	192	192	192	192	192
Time for education (Hour) (2 h per month *12 months per year)	24	24	24	24	24	24
Total cost of pharmacist time (Dollar)^b	4984	5666	6352	6987	7673	7868
Total cost of inappropriate prescriptions (Dollar)^c	43,500	36,718	29,627	15,354	8723	8978
Direct benefit-to-cost ratio ^d	8.73	6.48	4.66	2.20	1.14	1.14

^aTotal pharmacist time = (Time for reviewing and contacting) + (Time for summarizing and analyzing) + (Time for education);
^bTotal cost of pharmacist time = (Total pharmacist time)* (Hourly salary);
^cTotal cost of inappropriate prescriptions = the sum of costs of all inappropriate items;
^dDirect benefit-to-cost ratio = (Total cost of inappropriate prescriptions)/(Total cost of pharmacist time);

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