Hiring a part-time pharmacist to work at a general practice can save doctors time — but only private practices that charge patients can expect a positive return on investment, a small pilot study shows. 

University of Canberra researchers looked at the feasibility of hiring inhouse pharmacists, finding the value-cost ratio “may be positive in some scenarios”. 

Overall, between $0.61 and $1.20 income could be generated by the pharmacists for each $1 spent by the practice on wages, according to the study led by University of Canberra Associate Professor Sam Kosari.

But based on their modelling, only private-billing practices that charge for pharmacist consultations stood to make money from hiring a pharmacist, they reported in Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy.