Executive Summary

ASHP DRUG COST MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE WILL "DEVELOP STRATEGIES" for dealing with hospital drug budgets that are increasing annually 10%-15% and more, the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists announced Dec. 8 at its midyear clinical meeting in Orlando. Attending the invitational conference will be approximately 50 hospital administrators, split about evenly between CEOs and pharmacy directors. The meeting, to be held in Atlanta Feb. 24-26, will be funded by a $250,000 grant from Hoffmann-La Roche. "If we are going to advance patient care, we cannot ignore the financial issues that affect all our lives," ASHP Executive President Joseph Oddis noted. "At the same time, hospital administrators need to make financial decisions with a clear understanding of how these decisions will affect overall patient care." Speakers scheduled for the upcoming conference include: David Rothman, PhD, the director of Columbia University's Center for the Study of Society and Medicine; Gary Shorb, president of Methodist Hospitals of Memphis; Paul Pierpaoli, the pharmacy director at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center; and Alex. Brown pharmaceutical analyst Barbara Ryan. The conference proceedings will be published in ASHP's American Journal of Hospital Pharmacy. ASHP hopes the discussion will contribute to the national health care policy debate. The meeting, entitled "New Approaches to Understanding and Managing the Rising Costs of Pharmaceuticals," will be conducted by the healthcare marketing firm Health Concepts and moderated by the firm's president, Dennis Crimi.