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  • Title: Designating types of OCs in family planning agency can save money.
    Journal: Contracept Technol Update; 1985 Jan; 6(1):6-7. PubMed ID: 12279917.
    Abstract:
    The TriCounty Planned Parenthood Agency of Hershey, Pennsylvania saved $36,000 in purchasing costs during 1983 by instituting a policy to reduce the variety of oral contraceptive (OC) formulations prescribed by its clinicians. A study conducted by Paul G. Stumpf and others at the Hershey Medical Center concluded that a limited prescribing policy would reduce costs through bulk purchasing and reducing staff time devoted to ordering, inventory activities, labeling, and accounting procedures. The researchers identified 4 major groups of OCs including 1) a 30-35 mcg group, 2) a 50 mcg group, 3) a progestin dominant group, and 4) an estrogen dominant group. The relative costs and availability of specific products representing these groups were then assessed, and 1 product from each group was identified for inclusion in the agency's recommended list of OCs. The 4 products were 1)Ortho-Novum 1/35, 2)Ortho-Novum 1/50, 3)Demulen, and 4)Modicon. The agency's 7 obstetric and gynecology practitioners were then presented with a list of recommended drugs and provided with prescribing guidelines and information on the reasons for the new policy in educational sessions conducted by the agency's staff. Practitioners were asked to prescribe only those products on the recommended list unless other products were medically indicated. When the program was instituted in 1983 it was meet with some opposition on the part of the practitioners; however, over the next 2 years the practitioners adapted their prescribing pattern to the new policy. By 1983, 95% of all the cycles prescribed were from the recommended list. Furthermore, the number of OC cycles for which prescribed were written increased from 29,214-44,422 between 1980-83. This increase supports the contention that the patient dropout rate associated with the implemention of the new policy was minimal, and that the patient population was satisfied with the new polcy.
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