Electronic Medication Management Systems are Cost Effective

The cost of implementing electronic medication management systems is being offset by reduced adverse drug events, according to newly published research.
The study led by led by Professor Johanna Westbrook from the Australian Institute for Health Innovation and staff at Sydney's St Vincent Hospital found that implementing an electronic medication management system (eMMs) could provide savings of approximately $100,000 a year in a 30-bed ward.
“Before now, several studies had shown that health information technologies help to reduce medication errors, particularly prescribing errors among hospital patients. This is the first Australian study to look into the cost savings of these reductions,” said Westbrook.
The study showed that following the eMMs introduction, the rate of potential adverse drug events (ADEs) in one cardiology ward in a major teaching hospital, fell from 17 per 100 patient admissions to 5; a reduction of 71%. The estimated reduction in ADEs post eMMS was approximately 80 actual ADEs per year.
The researchers also looked at associated costs of eMMS implementation, maintenance, and operating expenses, finding the overall amount to be A$61 741 per year. This was easily covered by the reduced costs associated with ADEs, the reductions, of which were estimated to save the ward A$63–66 per admission (A$97 740–$102 000 per annum) post eMMS implementation. Use of the eMMs across the hospital would translate to estimated annual savings of $2.5M due to the number of ADEs prevented by the system.
“Australian hospitals are in the early stages of the implementation of eMMS, and these results provide some confidence to policy-makers, consumers, and clinicians that the benefits from these systems, in terms of ADEs prevented, provide a sound return on the investments made,” said Westbrook.
The full findings have been published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA): http://jamia.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/02/09/jamia.ocu014