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2022-06-15
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Formulary Evaluations
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Copyright (c) 2022 Holly Sheldon, Audrey Kostrzewa, Shannon Werner, Terry Audley, Adam Biggs, Taylor Mancuso, Mary Frances Picone
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Copyright of content published in INNOVATIONS in pharmacy belongs to the author(s).
Use of an Innovative Pharmaceutical Class Scoring Tool for Prioritized Annual Formulary Review
Holly Sheldon
Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin
Audrey Kostrzewa
Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin; Concordia University Wisconsin
Shannon Werner
Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin
Terry Audley
Froedtert Menomonee Falls Hospital
Adam Biggs
Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin
Taylor Mancuso
Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin
Mary Frances Picone
Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin; National Institutes of Health, Clinical Center Department of Pharmacy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.24926/iip.v13i2.4785
Keywords: Hospital formulary; formulary committee; drug information services; drug class review
Abstract
Background: Though The Joint Commission requires health systems perform annual formulary review, guidance for how to perform this review is lacking. Published methods include comprehensive review of all pharmaceutical classes; however, this approach may not be the most efficient or effective option for a health system with a large formulary.
Objective: To create a prioritization system for annual formulary review through development of a pharmaceutical class scoring tool.
Methods: Drug information pharmacists developed the scoring tool, which used external and internal data to score pharmaceutical classes in 4 categories: safety, efficacy, cost, and utilization. The primary outcome, number of formulary changes resulting from pharmaceutical class review, was compared between the highest-scoring and lowest-scoring class to assess the tool’s ability to prioritize high-yield class reviews.
Results: The tool calculated scores for 91 pharmaceutical classes, altogether containing 962 medications. After review of the highest-scoring class, corticosteroids, 2 formulary changes were made: one dosage form was removed from formulary, and one medication was restricted to outpatient use only. Zero formulary changes resulted from review of the lowest-scoring class, pharmaceutical adjuvants.
Conclusions: The tool described in this study prioritized annual formulary review efforts by identifying a pharmaceutical class with meaningful formulary optimization opportunities as the highest-scoring class, while correctly identifying a class with no optimization opportunities as the lowest-scoring class.
