An analysis of the costs of drugs' delivery process: policy implication

During last decade the budget constraint related to the health sector has progressively brought to adopt new actions to recover efficiency of the healthcare organizations. Among them, pharmaceutical expenditure has been one of the main focus for policy makers. In that area, different actions have been undertaken to decrease both the pharmaceutical costs, and to improve the efficiency of the drugs’ distribution process in the national health system. When considering the drugs’ distribution process a number of actors are involved: independent hospitals, Local Health Authorities (LHAs), community pharmacies, regional health authorities, wholesalers, the community, etc. The paper aims at presenting an analysis on the drug distribution modes introduced by Law. No 405/2001, direct distribution and dispensation on behalf of community pharmacies in two different regional settings in Italy (Alpha and Beta). An analysis at the level of the pharmaceutical departments was made. Guided interviews and document analysis were used to collect data. Based on that the two different processes were designed in the studied context, and the main activities generating costs for the national health system and for the community were detected. The study proved the major convenience of direct distribution in both of the analyzed departments. If this findings found evidence on a larger scale, healthcare spending policies should be oriented to incentivize this modality instead of dispensation by community pharmacies. In addition, replicability of the study in other regional contexts can help to detect best practices and promote efficiency in the way organizations manage the two distribution modes.