(1038) Innovating an End-user Drug Donation Program Following Ohio Repository Law Expansion

Objectives: Located in Cincinnati, Ohio, St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy (SVDPCP) is a last resort, safety net option for uninsured and underinsured individuals living in Southwestern Ohio that provides prescription medications and other clinical services for no charge. Since opening in 2006, SVDPCP has filled over 790,000 prescriptions valued at over $110 million and shown over $31 million in estimated costs avoided through their clinical services. Presently, 87% of prescriptions are filled with donated drugs from licensed distributors and redistributors that collect unused, surplus medicine from other healthcare facilities and pharmacies. However, certain medications are unavailable due to lack of donations from redistributors and cost to purchase from wholesalers. Nearly 100 end-users each month requested to donate their unused, un-expired, expensive, life-saving medications, but previous law prevented accepting these donations resulting in unwanted medication interventions for SVDPCP patients or referring them back to a retail pharmacy. For over two years, SVDPCP advocated and collaborated with legislators to expand Ohio repository law to allow for the donation of medications from patients after years of turning donors away. Their efforts came to fruition in January of 2023, when House Bill 558 was signed into law and the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy revised its rules for Operating Drug Repository Programs. This allowed SVDPCP to start accepting its first end-user donation in June of 2023.

The objectives of this innovative practice report are to establish a sustainable workflow for accepting end-user drug donations in Ohio, and to define the benefits of end-user drug donations.

Methods: SVDPCP developed initial policy and procedures regarding donations by end-users using a very limited formulary. There was a need to create a more thorough policy and procedure document as well as workflow improvements. This report will outline the complete SVDPCP workflow process and how the process was optimized and assessed for sustainability via a longitudinal quality improvement project utilizing Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles. Data collection related to the cost-savings and clinical benefits of the program will be collected from internal workload reports, data stored within the prescription processing software, and drug purchasing invoices. The primary objectives will be analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Results: Implementation and data collection is in progress. Preliminary data shows that 116 medication donations were made to SVDPCP within the first 90 days of implementation.

Conclusions: This new end-user drug donation program is one of the first of its kind in Ohio and could potentially serve as a framework for other drug repository programs in the state. Re-dispensing unused medications may not only increase access to medication for those in need, but it may also reduce drug waste, and reduce the expenses of drug procurement.