Dados do Trabalho

Título

CANCER DRUGS WASTE MINIMIZATION IN A PRIVATE INSTITUTION

Introdução

The burden of cancer is increasing worldwide, directly impacting in rising costs. Urgent solutions for the progressive costs of cancer care are needed. The prescription drug expenditure is only a fraction of health care costs, however, in some hospitals antineoplastics alone represent a significant and growing part of this spending and, frequently, are the leading category in drugs expenses. Still, little data is available about drug waste in under developing countries, specially, for Brazilian hospitals.

Objetivo

Description of the financial impact and chemotherapeutic waste reduction in an oncology pharmacy unit of a private hospital.

Método

This is a descriptive, cross-sectional observational study. The study data were obtained by analyzing chemotherapy prescriptions, signed by oncologists and hematologists from a private hospital during the period from March 2019 to December 2020. By means of a standardized data collection spreadsheet (prescribed dose, commercial presentations, purchased dose cost, used dose, cost per milligram), the dose of antineoplastic drug wasted for each medication and the substantial financial gain by optimizing the use were calculated.

Resultado

During the study period, a rounding dose protocol to the nearest vial size, as well as, the use of multidose vials were implemented a drug waste minimization policy. 486 chemotherapy prescriptions were analyzed. A total of 425.497 mg of prescribed medication was used. Doxorubicin, bevacizumab, irinotecan, carboplatin, oxaliplatin, cisplatin, cytarabine, fluoruracil, calcium folinate, nivolumab, and trastuzumab, were the most saving drugs by re-utilizing over several days due to its stability, impacting the drug costs in R$104,790.41 savings (3.01% of the total cost budget over the time). Brentuximab vedotin, ipilimumab and azacitidin were the representative drugs for a wasting and losing of R$172,803.41 (4.97% of the total budget). Overall, the drug waste represented a financial lost of only R$ 68,013 (1,95% of the total budget).

Conclusão

We have shown how the application of a simple drug waste minimization policy may reduce the whole drug waste expenditures. By facing progressive budgetary constrains, the application of a drug waste minimization model is urgent to containment the financial losses, producing durable benefits.

Palavras-chave

oncology, drug waste, cost-containment