Whitney Ly, PharmD
PGY-2 Critical Care Pharmacy Resident
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Disclosure information not submitted.
Brian Murray, BCCCP, PharmD
Clinical Pharmacy Specialist
University of North Carolina Hospitals
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Disclosure information not submitted.
Kerry Parish, n/a
Sr. Business Intelligence Analyst
University of North Carolina Hospitals, United States
Disclosure information not submitted.
Camille Burnette, MS
Sr. Business Intelligence Analyst
University of North Carolina Hospitals, United States
Disclosure information not submitted.
Lacey Lee, PharmD, BCPS
Medication Management and Optimization Clinical Specialist
University of North Carolina Hospitals, United States
Disclosure information not submitted.
Title: Development of a pharmacy dashboard tool to impact albumin utilization in the operating room
Introduction: Albumin is a high-cost medication and often over-utilized compared with crystalloids and non-protein colloids in the operating room (OR). Herein we report an innovative, interprofessional, analytics-driven approach to impact albumin utilization in the OR.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective, pre-post cohort study to examine the effect of an innovative dashboard reporting tool on albumin use in the OR at an academic medical center. Patients admitted with ≥ 1 documented administration of albumin in the OR between October 2020 and June 2021 were included. Total grams of albumin, number of vials, and cost data were collected. An interprofessional group including the departments of pharmacy, analytics, and anesthesiology created a dashboard reporting tool (implemented in February 2021) to provide enhanced cost transparency, focused education, and data on overall utilization and purchasing for high-impact/high-cost medications. The dashboard was used to provide focused information to a physician champion from the Health System Pain and Anesthesia Pharmacy and Therapeutics Subcommittee, who disseminated the data to OR providers on a monthly basis. We compared albumin usage pre- and post-implementation of the innovative dashboard reporting tool, with a primary outcome of grams of albumin administered per month in the OR.
Results: During the pre-implementation phase (October 2020 to January 2021, n = 1,685) a mean of 30,743 grams of albumin were administered per month. During the post-implementation phase (March 2021 to June 2021, n = 1,649) the mean grams of albumin administered per month was reduced to 23,625 grams (p = 0.104), a 24% reduction in average monthly albumin use in the OR. The calculated expenditure on albumin in the pre-implementation timeframe was $351,700 based on an average cost per gram of albumin, compared to $270,270 in the post-implementation timeframe. This represents an anticipated annual cost savings of $244,290 after implementation of the innovative dashboard reporting tool.
Conclusions: Implementation of a pharmacy-driven dashboard reporting tool and interprofessional education in collaboration with the anesthesiology department is an effective tool to encourage appropriate use of albumin in the OR setting and may contribute to substantial cost savings.