Summary
The pharmaceutical market in the FRG offers about 11,000 different preparations and formulations. A restricted list (pharmacopoeia) containing approximately 1,000 drugs has been proved to cover the routine requirements of a university clinic and most of the additional drugs demanded by the physicians as ‘exceptis excipiendis’.
Restrictive control of requests for drugs not included in the internal pharmacopoeia by clinical pharmacologists has reduced the absolute number of requests by half, and about 60% of the remaining requests could be replaced by drugs listed in the pharmacopoeia. The majority of the special requests arose from the continuation of drugs presented to out-patients by the resident physicians after admission of the patient to the hospital.
The supervision may lead to more critical revision of out-patient medication, but a substantial reduction of drug expenditure was not attained, as the drugs requested amounted only to a minor fraction of the overall drug expenditure by the hospital.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Rote Liste (1990) Bundesverband der Pharmazeutischen Industrie. Editio Cantor Verlag für Medizin, Aulendorf
Smith T (1985) Limited lists of drugs: lessons from abroad. Br Med J 290: 532–534
Kewitz H (1986) Arzneimittelliste für Krankenhäuser — Wie entstehen sie und was nützen sie? Internist 27: 13–20
Hartmann F (1990) Arzneimittelkommission — Erfahrungen an einem Universitätsklinikum. Internist 31: 475–480
Avorn J, Chen M, Hartley R (1982) Scientific versus commercial sources of influence on the prescribing behaviour of physicians. Am J Med 73: 4–8
Gross F (1981) Drug Utilization — theory and practice. The present situation in the Federal Republic of Germany. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 19: 387–394
Tennis P (1990) Drug utilization by the 30–64 year old people in two cities in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1984. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 38: 447–452
Dukes G, Lunde PKM, Melander A, Orme M, Sjöqvist F, Tognoni, Wesseling H (1990) Clinical pharmacology and primary health care in Europe — a gap to bridge. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 38: 315–318
Bausch J (1990) Verhütung von Arzneimittelregressen — Pharmakotherapieberatung. Hess Ärzteblatt 7: 328–335
Baker JA, Lant AF, Sutters CA (1988) Seventeen years' experience of a voluntarily based drug rationalisation programme in hospital. Br Med J 297: 465–469
Collier J, Forster J (1985) Management of a restricted drugs policy in hospital: the first five years experience. Lancet I: 331–334
Feely J, Chan R, Cocoman L, Mulpeter K, O'Connor P (1990) Hospital formularies: need for continuous intervention. Br Med J 300: 28–30
Katona BG, Ayd PR, Walters JK, Caspi M, Finkelstein B (1989) Effect of a pharmacist's and a nurse's interventions on cost of drug therapy in a medical intensive care unit. Am J Hosp Pharm 46: 1179–1182
Van Hessen PAW, Petri H, Urquhart J (1990) Do prescribed drugs always follow the patients to hospital? Pharm Weekbl (Sci) 12: 66–70
Brook I (1990) The risks of substitution of therapeutic modalities by cheaper and sometimes less effective agents. Arch Intern Med 150: 688–689
Soumerai TB, Ross-Degnan D, Gortmaker S, Avorn J (1990) Withdrawing payment for nonscientific drug therapy. JAMA 263: 831–839
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Harder, S., Thürmann, P., Huber, T. et al. Prescription of drugs not listed in a clinic's pharmacopoeia: supervision by clinical pharmacologists. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 40, 561–564 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00279970
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00279970