Value of pharmacy services for common illness symptoms covered by universal coverage at drugstore compared to outpatient services at a hospital in Thailand

ABSTRACT

Background

Drug stores is an option that people can receive health care services for their common illnesses. This is the first study aims to estimate cost savings for 16 common illness symptoms to the Thailand’s health system.

Method

This study gathered retrospective secondary data from several studies and surveyed the median cost of medicines. Cost savings of care provided by pharmacists at drug stores in comparison to out-patient department (OPD) services at hospitals were quantified using cost of illness approach.

Results

The average number of hospital visits for treatment for 16 common illness symptoms was 2,356 visits per month. The estimation of the cost savings per visit from three perspectives, including government, patient, and societal, at tertiary care hospitals were 12.7–19.4, 12.7–25.6, and 18.9–25.6 USD, and at secondary care hospitals were 6.0–12.7, 6.0–18.9, and 12.2–18.9 USD. Every $1 reimbursed at drug stores will save additional costs in Thailand's health system, ranging from $0.04 to $0.24 and $0.02 to $0.16 at tertiary care hospitals and secondary hospitals, respectively.

Conclusion

Pharmacy services for 16 common illness symptoms can clearly save costs.

KEYWORDS:

• Common illness
• cost
• drug store
• OTC
• pharmacy

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank IT personnel at Trat Provincial Public Health Office for queried data from tertiary and secondary care hospitals. Furthermore, the authors thank the committee for developing and driving drug store policies in the health care insurance system and, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand for steering this research. Notes on contributors: PR, TP, TW, and NT initiated the idea of this research work and drafted the proposal. TP TW performed data entry of the collected data. TP, PR, TW, NT, and SS contributed to data analysis and manuscript drafting. NT, PR, and TW provided administrative support and supervision. All authors proofread and approved the final version of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This secondary research uses data from previous studies and the Trat Provincial Public Health Office database. Data entry in this research is anonymous and de-identify data. The research protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of institute for the Development of Human Research Protections (IHRP) COE No. IHRP2024001.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully thank the Health Systems Research Institute (grant number HSRI 66-089), Ministry of Public Health, Thailand for supporting and facilitating this research.