(916) Investigating the Links Among MRC-ICU, SOFA, and Cost Avoidance From Pharmacists in a Chilean ICU

Introduction: The MRC-ICU, a novel regimen complexity scoring tool, provides an objective measure of medication regimen complexity in critically ill patients. It has been shown to correlate with mortality, ICU and hospital length of stay, severity of illness scores, drug-drug interactions, fluid overload, and pharmacist workload. The goal of this study was to evaluate for the first time if cost-avoidance from pharmacist interventions is related to MRC-ICU or severity of illness.

Methods: A 3-month, IRB-exempt, retrospective analysis of medical ICU patients was conducted. Data extracted included age, sex, ICU length of stay, MRC-ICU at 24 hours, and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) scores. Cost-avoidance per patient was calculated using a systematic validated approach. Pearson’s correlation was used to estimate the correlation between MRC-ICU and SOFA scores and the sum of total cost-saving interventions per patient.

Results: For a total of 80 patients, the average patient age was 57 years (SD 15), and 43% of the patients were female. The mean length of ICU stay was 13 days (SD 9). The main admission diagnoses were COVID-19 pneumonia (39%) and septic shock (14%). The mean MRC-ICU and SOFA scores were 24 (SD 8) and 8 (SD 4), respectively. The total cost saving across 80 patients and 220 pharmacist intervention (2.75 intervention per patient) was $148,934.13 USD ($1,861.79 USD cost avoidance per patient). MRC-ICU was not found to be correlated with the sum of cost avoidance per patient, and there was a low degree of correlation with SOFA (Pearson's value 0.23, p = 0.037).

Conclusions: In this initial analysis of the MRC-ICU score and its relationship with cost-avoidance of pharmacist interventions, no direct correlation was found, which may have been related to a lower sample size. However, SOFA demonstrated a low degree but significant correlation with MRC-ICU.