Healthy Skepticism Library item: 8154

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

McCaffrey DJ, Smith MC, Banahan BF, Frate DA, Gilbert FW.
Continued look into the financial implications of initial noncompliance in community pharmacies: unclaimed prescription audit pilot
Journal of Research in Pharmaceutical Economics 1998; 9:(2):33-57

Abstract:

The results of an audit of unclaimed prescriptions for one day’s worth of prescriptions in a nationwide sample of 128 community pharmacies are presented and the financial implications of this noncompliance behavior on the community pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry are addressed. Audit results revealed that prescriptions remained unclaimed at a rate of approximately 1.5% of all prescriptions received and/or filled. Chain pharmacies were found to have a higher rate of unclaimed prescriptions (1.8) than independent pharmacies (1.04). The estimated annual retail worth of unclaimed prescriptions was just over 1 billion dollars.