What Is a Hospital Formulary?

Ideally, a hospital pharmacy should have any drug to treat any disease. Unfortunately, stocking every available drug is not feasible, so hard choices must be made to select the drugs to be used. This list is the hospital formulary.

Identification

• A hospital formulary is a comprehensive list of every drug and therapeutic agent stocked by the pharmacy of that hospital.

Features

• A formulary includes a list of the drugs; monographs with information on each drug, such as uses, dosages and warnings; and a general reference section with information that might be helpful in treating patients.

Significance

• The purpose of the formulary is to prevent unnecessary spending to stock medications that differ only slightly from one another.

Who Decides

• A committee of the medical staff and pharmacists decides what drugs are included in the formulary. This committee typically meets once monthly.

Adding New Drugs

• A physician can request the addition of a drug. The drug is compared with similar agents present on the formulary in terms of effectiveness, side effects and cost.

Off-Formulary Drugs

• If a necessary drug is not included on the formulary, it can be ordered from a neighboring hospital or pharmacy.