Improved Efficiency and Reduced Costs during Infusion Therapy with Premixed Preparations Compared to Freeze-drying Powder

Background: An excessive medical expenditure is becoming a main barrier to good health for several people in China. Hence, there is a need to control this rising medical cost to reduce the financial burden placed on family and society in general. Objective: Our aim was to understand the expenses incurred during the use of two forms of infusion therapythe premixed preparations and the freezedrying powder forms and help select a safe and in-expensive route. Methods: The study was based on a drug named Metronidazole which comes in both the forms mentioned above and which is being successfully used for years in Chinese hospitals. Various parameters were taken into consideration to determine the costs involved during the treatment such as the actual price of the drug, duration of the treatment, the preparation costs, labor charges, materials involved in the preparation, medical waste disposal, equipment and maintenance expenses, size of the hospital and the energy costs. Results: Overall, our results revealed that premixed form of Metronidazole is not just a safe intravenous delivery system with negligible error rate but also the most inexpensive method of infusion therapy in small and medium hospital settings, reducing the cost of treatment to 68% over admixed preparation. Conclusions: Given the considerable cost saving, it might be quite meaningful for the healthcare system to develop and apply premixed systems for intravenous medications, especially for small and medium hospitals. INTRODUCTION: It is known that China has been suffering from continuous increase in medical cost and the limited medical resources can’t meet the increasing public needs on the quality and quantity of medical service 1, , this makes pharmacoeconomics play an important role in optimizing the allocation of medical resources and controlling the rapidly growing medical cost. Currently, the conventional reconstituted admixture and the premixed preparation are both widely used as two major injection forms. The premixed system is considered to facilitate efficiency, accuracy and safety and immediate use in emergency situations which could eliminate the need for further manipulations and ensure sterility and potency with a closed system. Compared to those of premixed forms, many intravenous drugs in most Chinese hospitals are available in freeze-drying powder forms, which needs to be reconstituted and diluted for infusion. Actually, the two preparations mentioned above are quite different in many aspects during clinical application especially in the manipulation process, which might bring a significant difference in the overall cost during