To facilitate mutual understanding between doctors and nurses, prevent errors, and assure quality control in the mixing intravenous drip solutions at Ikeda Municipal Hospital, the Department of Pharmacy manages changes in the mixing of solutions and provides appropriate information for drug use. We mix solutions for intravenous injection under uniform standards and also set up a satellite pharmacy to perform these functions in April 2000. This satellite pharmacy accepts prescriptions for manual intravenous injections and manages two laminar air follow cabinets and a laminar flow biological safety cabinet. A ward trial was started in April, another ward was added in June and all wards were included in October 2000. We mix solutions for intravenous injection from Monday till Friday, based on prescriptions received the previous day, from four divisions. The hours of operation are from 10 : 00 Am to 8 : 00 Pm excluding weekends and holidays. The preparation of anticancer and narcotic drugs is not performed by the satellite pharmacy. We mixed 60 to 70 bottles of intravenous injections per day, over a six-month period. Of the intravenous injections mixed, about 70 percent were mixed by the Department of Pharmacy. 95.3 percent were used, 1.8 percent diverted, 2.9 percent were not used.
