Costs of implementing pharmaceutical care in community pharmacies.

Objective: To estimate the costs and benefits to community pharmacies of converting a traditional practice into one based on pharmaceutical care.

Setting: Community-based ambulatory care pharmacies.

Practice Description: Community pharmacy.

Practice Innovation: Pharmaceutical care.

Main Outcome Measures: Costs incurred and revenues received.

Design: Twenty-five community pharmacies that had made the transition from traditional practice to one based on pharmaceutical care returned a survey providing data on the costs and revenues associated with the transition.

Results: Mean total cost of making the conversion for the 25 pharmacies was $36,207. The largest cost component associated with the transition was personnel, which had a mean cost of $16,512 per pharmacy. Mean revenues received for pharmaceutical care by these 25 pharmacies was $3,687, mainly for disease management services. Pharmacies that spent more on the conversions, and used brochures and physician detailing as well as consultants and franschises, tended to be more successful in generating revenues from pharmaceutical care.

Conclusion: Most pharmacies that have made the conversion to pharmaceutical care have not experienced an increase in profits as a result of that conversion. More effort needs to be directed toward improving the flow of revenues obtained from providing pharmaceutical care.