Tri-hospital formulary management: a joint effort to standardize therapy and reduce costs.

Tri-hospital efforts to promote rational drug therapy and avoid brand and therapeutic duplication have benefited not only the patient, but also the member institutions. Joint formulary management is aimed at evaluating and selecting the medications considered most beneficial to patient care and most cost-effective to the three hospitals. The approach used to maintain the joint formulary is detailed. Practical methods used to review and select formulary agents, as well as to inform the medical staffs and enforce decisions, are described. The individual efforts of the three hospitals have been channeled into a successful joint endeavor at these three institutions, and other P & T Committees may be able to apply this model to their own situations.