Cost-effectiveness of professional pharmacy services in community pharmacy: a systematic review

Introduction: The aim was to determine whether professional pharmacy services (PPS) provided to ambulatory patients attending community pharmacy are cost-effective compared with usual care (UC). Areas covered: MEDLINE, Web of Knowledge, Scopus, Cochrane Library and Centre for Reviews and Dissemination databases were searched, and the risk of bias of randomized controlled trials, and the methodological quality of economic evaluations was assessed. A total of 17 economic evaluations of 13 studies were included. Seven studies were classified as high-, three as medium- and three as low-quality. PPS were more effective and less costly than UC in four studies; seven studies concluded that PPS were more effective and more costly and two studies concluded that the service was as effective as the UC, with higher and lower costs. Expert commentary: Although the uncertainty was variable among the studies, a general trend towards the cost-effectiveness of PPS was observed. Decision makers are encouraged to consider the feasibility of implementing PPS.