Strategies for reducing i.v. drug waste and coping with increased workload

The amount of i.v. drugs wasted in our centralized i.v. admixture program was initially identified as a problem in 1982. The i.v. drug waste in 1982 was approximately $72,000, which represented 8.8% of the total i.v. drug budget. The i.v. admixture workload had also increased 35% from 1980 to 1982. The pharmacy department decided to approach the i.v. drug waste and increased workload problem by purchasing premixed i.v. solutions. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether premixed i.v. solutions are cost effective by decreasing both drug waste and i.v. preparation time. In addition, pharmacy standardized the doses of various i.v. drugs and instituted an on-call card system for the ordering of selected drug by nursing. By using the above methods, the pharmacy department was able to absorb an additional 37% increase in workload from 196,418 units in 1982 to 269,176 units in 1985. Also, pharmacy was able to reduce the i.v. drug waste from 8.8% of the i.v. budget in 1982, to 2.35% of the 1985 i.v. budget. Both of these goals was achieved without additional staff.