Abstract
In the perioperative period, some medicines used have a high-risk of causing serious medical accidents. With the reform of healthcare, the number of cases of surgery managed by anesthesiologists is increasing year by year. Therefore it is expected that pharmacists will contribute to medical care more for the perioperative period. In St Luke's International Hospital, pharmacists started duties in the operating room in April 2013. We investigated pharmacists' duties and examined the effects of the skill mixture of the perioperative care team. The main medicines prepared by perioperative pharmacists were vasopressors, intravenous anesthetics, muscle relaxants and narcotics used in the operations that anesthesiologists managed. The ratio of preparation medicines by perioperative pharmacists was 81.3% of scheduled operations. After pharmacists started duties in the operating room, time of work associated with medicines decreased by 5.35 minutes per surgery. The interval time between surgeries shortened by 14.6 minutes and the ratio of entering the operating room on schedule increased by 3.2%. These findings suggest that the skill mixture of perioperative pharmacists contributed to perioperative time management and efficiency of the operation administration and contributed also to hospital management. It is important to investigate the clinical significance of perioperative pharmacists' duties in terms of the perioperative medical quality and safety.
