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The benefits of a unit dose system in oral antibiotics dispensing: Azorean hospital pharmacists tackling the socioeconomic problem of leftovers in Portugal

In Portugal, oral antibiotics are usually dispensed in a predefined package size at the local community pharmacy. This rigid system can create inefficiencies (e.g. leftovers), since prescription regimens are flexible and sometimes the package does not correspond exactly to the prescribed treatment. To provide a solution to this problem, the Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo de Ponta Delgada (HDES) opened a Public Sales Unit (PSU) with a unit dose dispensing system of pharmaceuticals for its patients.

The aim of this study was to characterize and evaluate the unit dose system for oral antibiotics dispensing at the HDES-PSU, and to extrapolate the results at the Portuguese nationwide level.

Oral antibiotics dispensing dynamics at the HDES-PSU were examined over a period of 1 year. Dispensed prescriptions were analyzed, and relevant information was collected and entered into a digital database for analysis. To extrapolate results at a nationwide level, a database from Statistics Portugal was used.

The results revealed that the 663 registered interventions provided overall savings of 3939 pharmaceutical units, corresponding to €1032.99. The Portuguese nationwide extrapolation indicated that a total of 276,833 pharmaceutical interventions could be registered, corresponding to 1,544,317 pharmaceutical units saved and to €434,085.85 in monetary savings.

The present study provides insights into how a unit dose dispensing system can contribute to solving the socioeconomic problems raised by leftovers of oral antibiotics dispensing practices occurring in healthcare systems such as the Portuguese one.

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The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the HDES for the publication of this article, namely Dr Madalena Melo who is a pharmacist and former member of the Board of Directors from July 1, 2013 to September 22, 2019. Also, they would like to express their gratitude to the collaborators of the PSU, namely pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and operational assistants who were responsible for the PSU’s daily activities during this research’s period of analysis. This work was also supported in part by BioISI (Centre Reference: UID/MULTI/04046/2013) from FCT/MCTES/PIDDAC, Portugal.

1. Tiago Costa

   Present address: Procurement Department and Pharmaceutical Services, Unidade de Saúde da Ilha de São Miguel (USISM), Grotinha n.º 1, Ponta Delgada, 9500-354, Azores, Portugal

1. Pharmaceutical Services, Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo de Ponta Delgada, EPER, Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal

   Tiago Costa, Ana Cristina Pimentel & Ana Cristina Castanha

2. Molecular Genetics and Pathology Unit, Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo de Ponta Delgada, EPER, Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal

   Luisa Mota-Vieira

3. BioISI-Biosystems and Integrative Sciences Institute, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

   Luisa Mota-Vieira

4. Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal

   Luisa Mota-Vieira

1. Tiago Costa
2. Ana Cristina Pimentel
3. Luisa Mota-Vieira
4. Ana Cristina Castanha

Correspondence to Tiago Costa.

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary materials.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by TC. The first draft of the manuscript was written by TC and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Costa, T., Pimentel, A.C., Mota-Vieira, L. et al. The benefits of a unit dose system in oral antibiotics dispensing: Azorean hospital pharmacists tackling the socioeconomic problem of leftovers in Portugal. Drugs Ther Perspect 37, 212–221 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40267-021-00825-2

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• Accepted: 28 February 2021

• Published: 22 March 2021

• Issue Date: May 2021

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40267-021-00825-2

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