ArticlePharmacy world & science : PWS2010
Medications collected for disposal by outreach pharmacists in Australia.
Article in Pharmacy world & science : PWS, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Waste audits in healthcare: A systematic review and description of best practices.Waste management & research : the journal of the International Solid Wastes and Public Cleansing Association, ISWA · 2023Pooled it
- A systematic review of the literature on 'medication wastage': an exploration of causative factors and effect of interventions.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2014Pooled it
- A cross-sectional study of household disposal of unused and expired pharmaceuticals in western China.BMC public health · 2026Observational
- Rational drug use and the disposal cost of unused medications within house; a descriptive-cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- UAE pharmacists' perceptions of the causes of unwanted or unused medications, their practices, and barriers to promoting safe medication disposal by the public.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Unused medicine take-back programmes: a systematic review.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2024Review
- Analysis of medicines returned to pharmacies for disposal and estimation of the cost due to medicine wasting.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2022Article
- Household Drug Management Practices of Residents in a Second-Tier City in China: Opportunities for Reducing Drug Waste and Environmental Pollution.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Disposal Practices of Unused and Leftover Medicines in the Households of Dhaka Metropolis.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- A grey-DEMATEL approach for analyzing factors critical to the implementation of reverse logistics in the pharmaceutical care process.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2021Article
- Towards Medicines Reuse: A Narrative Review of the Different Therapeutic Classes and Dosage Forms of Medication Waste in Different Countries.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Review
- Expired Medication: Societal, Regulatory and Ethical Aspects of a Wasted Opportunity.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Review
- Analysis of Disposed Unused Medications at a Village Community Pharmacy.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Article
- Disposal of household pharmaceuticals in insular communities: social attitude, behaviour evaluation and prevention activities.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2018Article
- Pharmacists' Activities to Reduce Medication Waste: An International Survey.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Article
- Patient and medication factors associated with preventable medication waste and possibilities for redispensing.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2018Article
- An analysis of unused and expired medications in Mexican households.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2015Article
- Issues around household pharmaceutical waste disposal through community pharmacies in Croatia.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2014Article
- Medicines discarded in household garbage: analysis of a pharmaceutical waste sample in Vienna.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo examine the types, quantities, and monetary value of drugs which are disposed of by patients of outreach pharmacists, and to describe the role of outreach pharmacists in promoting the safe disposal of drug waste and reducing medication cost.
settingAn Outreach Medication Review service at a major public hospital in Melbourne, Australia.
methodsPart of the service offered by outreach pharmacists in OMR at St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne is to collect the medications that have expired, or are no longer needed by patients. This audit looked at all the items collected over a period of 2 months, July and August of 2008. We recorded the types of medication groups and the number of items in each of these groups. An estimate of the value of this medicinal waste was also made.
main outcome measureMeasurable parameters were the number of medications collected in the various therapeutic groups, and an estimate of their monetary value. This served to provide an estimate of the total value of wasted medications.
resultsMedications collected fell into 11 therapeutic groups, with a total of 293 items collected. The largest number of medications belonged to the cardiovascular group. The number of patients seen was 40 patients, with each patient having an average of 7.3 items that are either expired or unnecessary. The estimated value of medicinal waste per patient is about AU$1308 annually.
conclusionOutreach pharmacists are in a good position to collect unnecessary medications, and to educate patients on the prudent use of government subsidy of medications. The economic ramification of medication disposal is significant, in terms of the cost of medications that end up not being used. Cardiovascular medications are the main group that end up being wasted, and is among the most expensive to subsidize. Further studies are needed to examine ways of minimising medication waste and reducing the cost of such wastage.
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19823939What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.