As the number of medicines that patients bring with them on hospitalization is expected to increase with the introduction DPC system and patient co-payment rates rise,it will be necessary to make rules for the safety control and identification of medicines.However,one dose packages and cutting tablets into halves reduces the ability to identify the medicines that patients bring with them and their medicines may include those requiring greater caution,such as oral hypoglycemic agents.In view of this,we investigated the use of symbols on tablets and capsules by pharmacists for identification purposes as well as those on oral hypoglycemic agents.We found that a lot of pharmacists identify medicines only by identification numbers,though only a few medicines can be uniquely identified using such numbers,and that it became more difficult to identify tablets uniquely when cut in a half using the secant.It is therefore necessary to make rules that all related staff can use to identify oral hypoglycemic agents and other medicines requiring caution,not only for the identification of medicines that patients bring with them but also for identifying medicines in outpatient and emergency departments which is a frequent daily task.