Abstract
The economic impact of pharmaceuticals transcends conventional consideration of drugs' purchase prices and includes a variety of potentially hidden costs. Recent economic analyses of clinical practice reveal the substantial size of these costs, including prolonged length of stay, expenses of preparation and administration, and financial consequences of monitoring for or treating side effects. This article reviews three examples of research to analyze the hidden costs of antibiotics: one that enumerated the savings in administration and preparation costs from a once-daily antibiotic; one that estimated savings from an early discharge program for home antibiotic treatment; and one that measured the economic impact of antibiotic-associated nephrotoxicity.
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