For the efficient management of stock medicines at our hospital, we developed a computer system in which expiration dates are recorded and used data produced by it to reconsider our selection of stock medicines.
We report on an evaluation of this system. The monitoring of expiration warning lists automatically generated by the computer system by our pharmacists prevented stock medicines from expiring before use. Further, a reconsideration of our stock medicines based on usage data in each ward produced a 25.0% decrease in the total number of medicines stocked and a 24.7% decrease in the overall cost of stock medicines. Thus, the computer management system enhanced safety for our stock medicines and a reconsideration of medicines stocked based on usage data enabled us to reduce ward costs.
