OBJECTIVES Many medication errors can occur when ordering and dispensing medicine in hospitals. The clinical decision support system (CDSS) is widely used in an effort to reduce medication errors. This study focused on the evaluation of user satisfaction with the CDSS for medication at a university hospital. Specifically, this study aimed to identify the factors influencing user satisfaction an...

BACKGROUND Drug manufacturer rebates paid to health plans and pharmacy benefit management companies have come under increased public scrutiny. Over the past several years, numerous articles have appeared in the literature encouraging a shift to a more quality-based decision-making process for health plan drug formularies. OBJECTIVE To propose a new basis for formulary placement decisions that...

In 1992 HCFA awarded two cooperative agreements for demonstrations of prospective drug utilization review (PDUR). Iowa tested an on-line prospective drug utilization review (OPDUR) system. Washington tested payments to pharmacists for providing non-dispensing "cognitive services" (CS). In this article the authors report on an evaluation of these demonstrations and on three assessments of retros...

Legislative and regulatory efforts to address controlled substance diversion and overuse of narcotics are affecting prescription drug utilization and patient care. These initiatives can influence formulary drug selection, prior authorization procedures, and drug utilization strategies.

Adverse drug reactions are a common and important complication of drug therapy in children. Over the past decade it has become increasingly apparent that genetically controlled variations in drug disposition and response are important determinants of adverse events for many important adverse events associated with drug therapy in children. While this research has been difficult to conduct over ...

Hypertension is chronic disease with high prevalence, which can successfully be treated with antihypertensive drugs. Previous researches have shown that existing hypertension treatment guidelines are not fully implemented in practice. We have analysed antihypertensive drug utilization in Canton Sarajevo during five-year period (2004-2008). Research findings are discussed in relation to expected...

Drug utilization has been defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the „marketing, distribution, prescription and the use of drugs in a society, with a special emphasis on the resulting medical, social, and economic consequences“ . Drug utilization studies are usually aimed at drug use-related problem detection and quantification. These studies may be quantitative (with the objective t...

BACKGROUND: While increases in prescription drug spending have moderated in recent years, drug spending is still a concern among managed care organizations and health plan administrators. In order to minimize cost increases from year to year, many health care plans have shifted more of the cost of medications to the member-consumer. Coinsurance, a benefit design in which the patient pays a perc...