The Cost of Medications at a Student-Run Free Clinic in New Haven, Connecticut, 2021–2023
ORIGINAL RESEARCH — Volume 21 — May 16, 2024
PEER REVIEWED
Map of neighborhoods in New Haven, Connecticut.
Figure 1.
Location of neighborhoods in New Haven, Connecticut. A large proportion (62%) of Haven’s patients live in either the Hill or Fair Haven, 3 to 6 miles from Amity, which has the only retail pharmacy in New Haven that accepts payment over the telephone. Map adapted and reprinted with permission from the Yale Macmillan Center. In the adaptation, 2 red circles were added to highlight low-income neighborhoods (Fair Haven and Hill), and a purple circle was added to highlight a high-income neighborhood (Amity). Map tiles by Stamen Design; Creative Commons by 3.0 license (15).
Figure 2.
The costs of the 246 expensive prescriptions by type of medical condition treated, Haven Free Clinic, New Haven, Connecticut, March 2021–March 2023. At the top of each bar, the percentage indicates the percentage of the total costs of the expensive medications ($10,967.78) during the study period, and the n’s indicate the number of prescriptions. An expensive medication was defined as one that cost more than $20.
Type of medical condition treated | Total cost, $ | Percentage of total costs | Number of prescriptions |
---|---|---|---|
Pulmonary | 2,030.76 | 19 | 31 |
Neurology | 1,236.64 | 11 | 27 |
Cardiology | 1,161.96 | 11 | 41 |
Gastroenterology | 1,140.94 | 10 | 26 |
Obstetrics and gynecology | 1,084.30 | 10 | 33 |
Infectious disease | 885.34 | 8 | 12 |
Dermatology | 716.62 | 7 | 15 |
Psychiatry | 705.80 | 6 | 12 |
Musculoskeletal | 589.44 | 5 | 18 |
Endocrine | 440.56 | 4 | 10 |
Ear, nose, and throat | 391.70 | 4 | 5 |
Urology | 213.55 | 2 | 7 |
Immunology | 192.32 | 2 | 4 |
Rheumatology | 177.85 | 2 | 5 |
Total | 10,967.78 | 100 | 246 |
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