Pharmacists Improve Infectious Disease Outcomes, Reduce Costs

Pharmacists’ recommendations in infectious disease management led to improved clinical outcomes, reduced adverse drug reactions, and decreased health care costs, according to a study published in Infection and Drug Resistance.¹ While proper infectious disease management requires the skills of various medical providers, researchers believe a multidisciplinary approach including pharmacists is necessary.

“As the global burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) continues to rise, it not only complicates the treatment of common infections but also results in prolonged illness, higher mortality rates, and escalating health care costs,” wrote authors of the study. “Consequently, there is an urgent need for innovative strategies to manage AMR effectively.”

AMR is when antimicrobial medicines, like antibiotics and antivirals, no longer trigger responses from bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. In other words, for people experiencing AMR, antimicrobials are simply ineffective.² As many experts and researchers have presented, AMR is on the rise with 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections occurring in the US every year.³

For patients experiencing AMR, antimicrobial medications are simply ineffective. | image credit: Kamitana / stock.adobe.com

Amid this rise, AMR has paved the way for pharmacists’ expansion of services and their ability to assist in antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs). Previous evidence has shown the unique ability of pharmacists to reduce the overall use and duration of antibiotic therapies by at least 15% among their patients.¹

READ MORE: Infections for Measles, Bird Flu, and Pertussis Increase in 2025

In China, where AMR is also on the rise, their systems for facilitating ASPs are complex and create difficulty for pharmacists and other providers to provide care. With a lack of effective communication in China’s health systems, researchers deemed implementation of a multidisciplinary collaboration model significantly difficult.

To explore pharmacists’ roles in both ASPs and in multidisciplinary teams as a whole, researchers explored inpatient data from anti-infective consultations in China’s Zhejiang Province.

“This retrospective study assessed data from pharmacists involved in anti-infective consultations at a 2100-bed tertiary general hospital,” they continued. “It analyzed the characteristics of consultation cases and evaluated the impact of pharmacist-led anti-infective pharmaceutical consultations on patient clinical outcomes and antimicrobial treatment costs, providing valuable insights to promote the safe and rational use of anti-infective drugs.”

They conducted a retrospective study consisting of inpatients that received pharmacist-led consultations for anti-infection. Each patient was separated into 2 groups whether or not they heeded pharmacists’ recommendations. One group was the adherence group for those that accepted pharmacists’ advice while the non-adherence group did not accept recommendations.

Aside from patients’ chances of accepting pharmacist-led advice, researchers also determined the purpose of pharmaceutical consultations, details of adjustments to the anti-infective treatment plan before and after consultation, occurrence of adverse drug reactions, and treatment costs.

Throughout the study period, pharmacists were tasked with patient consultations, working with other providers to enhance patients’ treatment plans, and documenting the evidence-based results to use for future care. They conducted a total of 498 anti-effective therapy consultations and met with a total of 313 patients (58.8% men).¹

Highlighting the efficacy of pharmacists’ interventions, clinicians accepted the pharmacist’s recommendation over 82% of the time.

“Based on the comparative analysis of clinical and economic outcomes between the pharmacist recommendation adherence group and the non-adherence group, the data robustly demonstrate that adherence to pharmacist-led antimicrobial stewardship interventions significantly improved clinical efficacy and reduced health care costs,” wrote the authors.¹

Overall, patients in the adherence group demonstrated superior outcomes to those in the non-adherence group. Indeed, pharmacist-led infectious disease management led to a higher clinical response rate, a 69% reduction in adverse drug reactions, and a 67% lower 14-day mortality rate. For health care expenditures, pharmacists assisted in an average cost reduction of 69% for antimicrobial therapy and 58% lower hospitalization costs.

While many of the current study’s findings align with previous evidence, researchers still believe more research is needed to further understand the pharmacist’s consultation strategies, especially in ASPs and infectious disease management.

“This retrospective study demonstrated that adherence to clinical pharmacist recommendations significantly improved the clinical response rate, reduced the incidence of adverse drug reactions, and decreased health care expenditures, highlighting the critical value of multidisciplinary collaboration in infectious disease management,” they concluded.¹ “Prospective studies are warranted to further validate the specific contributions of pharmacist-led consultations strategies.”

READ MORE: Infectious Disease Resource Center

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References

1. Xin C, Zheng B, Zhao Q, et al. Impact of pharmacist-led anti-infective consultations on therapeutic outcomes: a retrospective cohort study in a tertiary hospital. Infect Drug Resist. 2025 Jul 28;18:3735-3744. doi: 10.2147/IDR.S534678.

2. Antimicrobial resistance. WHO. November 21, 2023. Accessed August 8, 2025. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/antimicrobial-resistance

3. Antimicrobial resistance facts and stats. CDC. February 4, 2025. Accessed August 8, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/antimicrobial-resistance/data-research/facts-stats/index.html