Pharmacoeconomic assessment of providing patients with tableted non-narcotic opioid analgestics upon their discharge from the hospital: opportunities and realities

The balance of the drug portfolio of healthcare facilities contributes to the prolongation of the provision of medical care at the proper level, ensuring interaction and continuity between the inpatient and outpatient stages of care, which is especially important in organizing and conducting pain syndrome therapy. Currently, the patient's need for pain therapy already at the time of discharge from the hospital before an appointment with an outpatient doctor is expressed by the legislative possibility of handing over potent drugs to the patient for a period of up to 5 days.

Objectives: justification of medicine provision with a fixed-dose combination (FDC) of Paracetamol and Tramadol to patients with pain syndrome during their transition from inpatient to outpatient care based on a pharmacoeconomic approach and to evaluate the costs of such pharmacotherapy.

Material and methods. The results of previous studies on the evaluation of the effectiveness of the analgesic action of the Paracetamol and Tramadol FDC in comparison with the injectable monodrug Tramadol product and the cost of obtaining 1 unit of effectiveness in the conditions of emergency surgical and trauma departments of a hospital, content analysis of legislation and internal regulations on the circulation of drugs of controlled groups, statistics of the bed capacity of the emergency surgery department for the period of 2021–2022.

Results and discussion. The use of Paracetamol and Tramadol FDC for pain therapy, taking into account the comparison and grouping of patients, made it possible to reduce the cost of pain syndrome therapy by 23,472.68 rubles within 4 months. Extrapolation of the obtained data for 4 months for an annual period showed the possibility of reducing the cost of treating pain syndrome by 70,418.04 rubles while ensuring a comfortable transition of patients to outpatient care.

Conclusion. The studies show the clinical and economic feasibility of using a Paracetamol and Tramadol FDC both in hospital care and when moving from a hospital to an outpatient clinic.