What does this research mean for the field?

Integrating High-Alert Medication (HAM) and Look-Alike, Sound-Alike (LASA) metrics with multi-year ABC-VED matrices provides a more effective model for proactive cost-containment and medication safety in outpatient pharmacies than relying solely on traditional single-year matrices. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.METHODOLOGICAL. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

What question did this study set out to answer?

To evaluate longitudinal outpatient pharmacy inventory patterns across three consecutive fiscal years using ABC and VED analyses integrated with High-Alert Medication and Look-Alike, Sound-Alike safety assessments.

August 22, 2026CureusOpen Access

Beyond Traditional Inventory Matrices: A Multidimensional Inventory and Safety Model for an Outpatient Pharmacy

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark

To evaluate longitudinal outpatient pharmacy inventory patterns across three consecutive fiscal years using ABC and VED analyses integrated with High-Alert Medication and Look-Alike, Sound-Alike safety assessments.
Conducted a retrospective longitudinal inventory study across three fiscal years (FY 2023-24 to FY 2025-26) analyzing 6,207 to 6,468 unique medication lines annually at a tertiary care hospital in New Delhi.
Applied ABC Pareto analysis, VED classification mapped to the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM 2022), and algorithmic string matching for high-alert medication (HAM) and look-alike/sound-alike (LASA) vulnerabilities.
Total annual pharmacy expenditure grew from ₹3.80 billion (FY 2023-24) to ₹4.57 billion (FY 2024-25) and ₹5.54 billion (FY 2025-26), while Class A items decreased in volume from 4.45% (n=276) to 2.77% (n=179).
Desirable medication expenditure expanded from 57.57% (n=3,362) to 72.58% (n=3,516), whereas Vital life-saving drugs consistently comprised <1.36% of volume (n=79-88) and <0.07% of financial value.
Safety evaluations detected 27 to 32 high-alert medications annually alongside persistent high-risk look-alike/sound-alike drug pairs with string similarity exceeding 85%.

Discussion

No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.

Implication

Retrospective longitudinal study reveals shifting drug expenditures and safety risks in hospital pharmacy inventory, highlighting the need to integrate clinical safety into inventory models.

Cite This Study

Sharma et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a895f87ca7ade938187e400 https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.114820

View Full Paper

Ask AI

Bookmark

Implication

Retrospective longitudinal study reveals shifting drug expenditures and safety risks in hospital pharmacy inventory, highlighting the need to integrate clinical safety into inventory models.

Beyond Traditional Inventory Matrices: A Multidimensional Inventory and Safety Model for an Outpatient Pharmacy

Key Points

Discussion

Implication

Cite This Study

Beyond Traditional Inventory Matrices: A Multidimensional Inventory and Safety Model for an Outpatient Pharmacy

Key Points

Discussion

Implication

Cite This Study

Also Consider

Also Consider