Abstract
Pharmacists’ engagement in the inventory management of regular medicines in intensive care units (ICUs) generates economic effects; however, the existing literature has not examined all the aspects in detail. Therefore, in this study, we investigated whether pharmacists could improve the management of regular medicines in the ICU, which will reduce the economic loss incurred due to misplacement or damage.
We compared the number of medicines reported to be in surplus, lost, or damaged and the amount of loss incurred before and after pharmacists’ engagement. We defined “before” and “after” as of September 1, 2016, to August 31, 2018, and September 1, 2018, to August 31, 2020, respectively.
Consequently, the pharmacists reported a decrease in the number of damaged or misplaced medicines from 329 to 229 (30.4%), and the amount of loss incurred from 192,910 yen to 110,090 yen (42.9%). The number of medications reported as surplus inventory or loss has decreased significantly, which is related to management status rather than human error. In this study, the observed pharmacists’ inventory management in the ICU improved the management of regular medicines and reduced the economic loss incurred due to their misplacement or damage.
