The cost-effectiveness of a clinical pharmacist intervention among elderly outpatients

This is a critical abstract of an economic evaluation that meets the criteria for inclusion on NHS EED. Each abstract contains a brief summary of the methods, the results and conclusions followed by a detailed critical assessment on the reliability of the study and the conclusions drawn. The authors concluded that the introduction of the pharmacist advice protocol improved patient prescribing at low cost, although overall use of health care services between the intervention and the comparator did not differ significantly in the study, which is consistent with other reports in the literature. Costs of the intervention were conservatively estimated and would fall if fixed costs were apportioned over a greater number of patients. Further research is required, however, to assess the long term costs and outcomes of such protocols