Efficiency Improvement of Dispensing of Drugs for Injection by a Total Automatic Injection Dispenser System Including Infusion Fluids and Its Evaluation

For the appropriate use of drugs for injection, injection dispensing by pharmacists has been initiated at various institutions. With this movement, automatic injection dispensers have actively been developed. In our hospital, an injection order system was connected with an automatic injection dispenser in November, 1997, and this integrated system has been operating in all wards. However, the efficiency of dispensing work was not satisfactory because there were limitations in the types and volume of drugs placed in the automatic injection dispenser. Therefore, we constructed an automatic injection dispenser system that allows us to use more than 100 ml infusion fluids and also to use drugs stored in a cool place, which could not be used in the conventional system. In the new system, two trays coming from an ampoule-vial line and an infusion fluid line are automatically coordinated using a discharge lifter for each patient and transported into an injection cart. After the introduction of this system, the automatic dispenser utilization rate in terms of the number of used injections increased from 52.6% to 73.3%. In addition, since the dispensing time for infusion fluids and drugs stored in a cool place, which had been collected by man power, was reduced, it became possible to pay more attention to checking for prescription.