Developing a unit-of-use drug distribution system for the hospital emergency room

The development of a unit-of-use drug distribution system for hospital emergency rooms (ERs) is described. Initially, each emergency room physician was requested to compile a list of medications for an emergency room formulary. These lists were edited into a single list and presented to the ER Committee for review. This committee was to recommend the least number of medications possible per therapeutic category. During this time, the support of the ER staff was gained, policies and procedures were established, and a unit dose cart system was chosen. The final step was to present the recommended emergency room drug formulary to the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee for their review and approval. The advantages of this system are: establishment of pharmacy drug control in the ER; reduction of ER inventory; greatly improved drug security; proper drug labeling; and automatic restocking of medications in the ER, resulting in time savings for ER personnel.