Objective: To analyse the characteristics and cost of medical prescriptions given upon discharge from the casualty department, as well as the savings made by making substitutions with generic drugs or other equivalent pharmaceutical products in a third level hospital.
Methods: 669 patients were chosen using a cluster sample with a sub-sample. The following variables were considered: a) analysis of the prescription (medication quantification, active ingredients and most prescribed therapeutic groups, and possibility of prescribing generic drugs); b) calculation of cost and saving estimate (price to public and equivalent products); c) prescription quality (adherence to the guide and percentage of products of high therapeutic use.)
Results: 370 of the 669 patients received medication when they were discharged, with an average of 1.7 per patient. 629 products were prescribed, 16 % due to their active ingredient, with 37.53 % generic products available. The main active ingredients prescribed were paracetamol, ibuprofen and omeprazole amounting to 26.70 % of the total prescribed and the therapeutic groups that were highlighted were locomotor apparatus, the nervous system, the digestive apparatus and metabolism with 69.39 % of the total. 92.84 % of the prescriptions adhered to the pharmaco-therapeutic guide and 98.41 % were of high therapeutic use. The annual cost of prescribed medication was 1,013,778 Euro and the saving made by generic product substitution and a programme of therapeutic equivalents was 145,971 Euro.
Conclusions: A prescription based on its active ingredients and a therapeutic and generic substitution produce a significant saving both for the patient and for the hospital.