Background The importance of prescriptive appropriateness in antibiotic treatment derives from the need to combine the effectiveness of care with available resources, making them accessible to all.

An inappropriate prescription may cause errors that can have important consequences in both patient’s health and healthcare costs. With the prescription of antibiotics, it is also important to reduce the phenomenon of resistance.

Currently, the strategies adopted to reduce errors in therapy are:

• Computerised systems for prescribing and administering therapy.

• Preparation and distribution of unit dose drugs.

• Control and validation of therapy by the clinical pharmacist.

Our hospital has been managing the unit dose system since 2005. Currently, there are 18 units under unique dose with a total of 400 beds.

Purpose The aim of this study was to evaluate the pharmacist’s contribution to risk management to increase the appropriateness of antibiotic prescriptions and reduce costs.

All the therapies that have been modified following a pharmacist’s report and, therefore, the degree of acceptance of notifications by the medical staff were examined.

Material and methods The analysis was carried out by extrapolating, from the prescription software, the medical prescriptions of the antibiotics during June to December 2016 and June to December 2017. We found the following discrepancies:

• Posology (dosage, administration frequency, route of administration, duration of therapy).

• Therapeutic indication.

• Pharmacological interactions.

• Instructions on how to dilute.

• Intolerances/allergies.

Results From June to December 2016, 279 inappropriate therapies were reported by the pharmacist. Of these, 19% (53) were modified by the doctor.

In the period June to December 2017, 430 reports were introduced, of which 26.51% (114) were modified by the doctor.

The result of the analysis confirms an increase in appropriateness of 7.51%.

In the two periods compared, there was an increase in reports that also produced an economic saving of €33,619.12.

Conclusion The analysis shows that the role of the pharmacist is fundamental, both to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of the therapies and to limit the costs of pharmaceuticals and health in general.

References and/or acknowledgements https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273647155_DD-007_Is_the_Unit_Dose_Process_a_tool_for_patient_safety_and_for_implementing_%27Lean_Thinking%27_in_the_drug_supply_chain

No conflict of interest.