{
  "abstract": "Background and Importance Clinical pharmacy extends beyond healthcare provision—it plays a vital role in responsible financial management. This involves not only the cost-effective procurement of medicines but also maintaining realistic departmental expectations. While some hospitals operate with a single central pharmacy budget, others allocate budgets directly to each ward.In April 2025, a departmental budget monitoring was introduced, giving each ward a fixed monthly budget and making them accountable for staying within it. This shift allowed us to compare two real-world financial strategies and to examine how budget responsibility can shape both costs and therapeutic decisions.Aim and Objectives Our goal was to implement budgets that accurately reflect each ward’s actual drug expenditures, and to assess how departmental budget monitoring affected hospital-wide costs and the therapeutic choices of specific wards. Furthermore, we aimed to evaluate the system’s effectiveness.Material and Methods To establish the new budgets, we analysed each ward’s total drug requirements in 2024 and averaged the 12 month financial costs. Considering changes in drug prices, we added a 10% margin to prevent the new limits from being overly restrictive. This adjusted cost estimation defined the monthly drug budgets from 1 April 2025. For comparability, we examined the deviation between the total medication costs and the available budget over the same 5 month period (April–August) in both years.Results Between April and August 2024, wards exceeded their allocated budgets in four out of five months, with an average overspend of 9.77%. In contrast, during the same period in 2025—after introducing the new monthly budgets and direct accountability—departments generally stayed within limits, with orders averaging 3.6% below the set limit. The savings ensured larger safety stocks (6 weeks reserve vs 2 weeks reserve in 2024).Conclusion and Relevance The introduction of ward-based budget management produced significant economic and clinical advantages. Making wards responsible for their own budgets improved cost control and encouraged more deliberate therapeutic choices, while ensuring continuous drug availability and comforting safety stocks. Enhanced collaboration with the pharmacy in selecting cost-effective equivalents strengthened clinical communication and teamwork.Conflict of Interest No conflict of interest",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Dr. Manninger Jenő Trauma Centre, Hospital Pharmacy Department, Budapest, Hungary"
      ],
      "name": "BDR Bata"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Dr. Manninger Jenő Trauma Centre, Hospital Pharmacy Department, Budapest, Hungary"
      ],
      "name": "ÁL Kiss"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Dr. Manninger Jenő Trauma Centre, Hospital Pharmacy Department, Budapest, Hungary"
      ],
      "name": "EE Nagy"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Dr. Manninger Jenő Trauma Centre, Hospital Pharmacy Department, Budapest, Hungary"
      ],
      "name": "A Szilvay"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Dr. Manninger Jenő Trauma Centre, Hospital Pharmacy Department, Budapest, Hungary"
      ],
      "name": "A Bor"
    }
  ],
  "title": "2SPD-028 Implementation of ward-based financial monitoring in healthcare management",
  "uid": "2f09cc43-bddf-5e5a-a0d5-2ec08cb6b97d"
}