Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, Vol 41, 1047-1052, Copyright © 1994 by Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society

ARTICLES

Price stickers do not alter drug usage

JC Horrow and H Rosenberg
Department of Anesthesiology, Hahnemann University, Philadelphia, PA.

Anaesthetists choose daily among wide varieties of neuromuscular blocking drugs and rapidly acting hypnotic agents. This study sought to determine whether definitive, immediate knowledge of drug cost might influence clinician choices, ultimately reducing the cost of anaesthesia care. Faculty anaesthetists, residents in training, and nurse anaesthetists served as subjects in this prospective, sequential, blinded study of prescribing habits. Weekly inventories of selected neuromuscular blocking and rapidly acting hypnotic agents were performed over 24 wk at a tertiary-care hospital. Supermarket style price stickers plainly indicating the hospital cost of each unit of drug appeared continually for 13 wk following an initial 11 wk control period. Both actual usage data in priced units as well as data normalized by total anaesthesia duration underwent comparison between control and priced periods. The usage of pancuronium, vecuronium, atracurium, mivacurium, succinylcholine, thiopentone, etomidate, and propofol did not differ in the control from the priced periods. Pipecuronium decreased after sticker placement (2 vs 1 vials.wk-1 median, P < 0.05), as did methohexitone (39 +/- 9.0 [SD] vs 29 +/- 11 syringes.wk-1, P < 0.05). Ketamine usage normalized by total anaesthesia duration increased (P < 0.05) following sticker placement. The weekly cost of all drugs inventoried normalized for caseload did not differ during the measurement periods. Immediate cost awareness, implemented simply as price stickers on drug units, had minimal impact on clinicians' drug usage in a tertiary care setting.