Healthcare Insights
Top 25 hospitals with the highest pharmacy costs
Patient access to affordable pharmaceuticals is vital to improving care outcomes, managing chronic illness, and keeping healthcare costs down. However, patients must also understand the necessity of taking medications as prescribed and remain invested in their own care.
Pharmacists are increasingly being drawn into discussions of patient engagement, as their role in filling prescriptions means they are likely to see patients more often than providers.
We compiled a list of the top 25 hospitals by total pharmacy costs. See who made the list below.
Top 25 hospitals by highest pharmacy costs
| Rank | Hospital name | Pharmacy costs | Explore dataset |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center | $1,274,828,203 | Explore |
| 2 | Dana Farber Cancer Institute | $730,856,185 | Explore |
| 3 | University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center | $729,372,529 | Explore |
| 4 | The University of Kansas Hospital | $565,488,957 | Explore |
| 5 | Strong Memorial Hospital | $538,739,176 | Explore |
| 6 | Tisch Hospital | $466,149,359 | Explore |
| 7 | UK Albert B Chandler Hospital | $464,523,296 | Explore |
| 8 | Duke University Hospital | $450,288,071 | Explore |
| 9 | NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center | $415,958,266 | Explore |
| 10 | UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital | $409,479,878 | Explore |
| 11 | University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center | $409,479,878 | Explore |
| 12 | Moffitt Cancer Center Magnolia Campus | $398,259,187 | Explore |
| 13 | UCSF Helen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights | $386,527,130 | Explore |
| 14 | The James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute | $382,190,299 | Explore |
| 15 | UC San Diego Medical Center | $357,254,737 | Explore |
| 16 | UMass Memorial Medical Center - University Campus | $356,969,317 | Explore |
| 17 | Northwestern Memorial Hospital | $356,852,530 | Explore |
| 18 | Medical University of South Carolina Medical Center | $327,804,916 | Explore |
| 19 | UChicago Medicine Mitchell Hospital | $325,818,501 | Explore |
| 20 | City of Hope Helford Clinical Research Hospital | $309,401,192 | Explore |
| 21 | Hackensack University Medical Center | $296,912,966 | Explore |
| 22 | Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center | $289,524,654 | Explore |
| 23 | Penn State Health Milton S Hershey Medical Center | $284,122,250 | Explore |
| 24 | Parkland Health | $284,089,453 | Explore |
| 25 | NewYork-Presbyterian Queens | $282,197,432 | Explore |
Fig. 1 Data from Definitive Healthcare HospitalView product. Data accessed December 2022.
Which hospital has the highest pharmacy costs?
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center reports the highest pharmacy costs, with more than $1.2 billion. Next is Dana Farber Cancer Institute, with $730,856,185. Close behind and in third place was the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, with a pharmacy expenditure of $729 million.
What are pharmacy costs like in oncology?
Notably, the top three hospitals, as well as two others on the list—Moffitt Cancer Center Magnolia Campus and The James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute—are cancer centers. Hospitals that specialize in cancer care likely maintain higher pharmacy costs as oncologists treat cancer with many different types of drugs.
Interestingly, oncology doesn’t rank in the top 15 physician specialists by highest propensity to prescribe branded drugs. This discrepancy may be explained by the fact that cancer drugs tend to be very expensive, with one year of cancer treatment per patient often costing more than $100,000. Even more, the intravenous administration of cancer drugs also requires the use of pharmacy supplies.
What are hospital pharmacy services?
Hospital pharmacy services involve the selection, preparation, storage, compounding, and dispensation of medications for use by patients in medical environments. Pharmacists in hospitals create medication plans and educate patients on how to take their medication, among other responsibilities.
What are hospital pharmacy costs?
Pharmacy spending is the cost of drugs and pharmacy supplies requested by patient care departments as well as the drugs charged to patients. Pharmacy supplies include items such as medication bottles, ointment jars, and labels.
Learn more
Healthcare Insights are developed with healthcare commercial intelligence from the Definitive Healthcare platform. Want even more insights? Start a free trial now and get access to the latest healthcare commercial intelligence on hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare providers.
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