Introduction and Evaluation of a Protocol for Optimizing Saline Solutions:

Mie Chuo Medical Center has introduced protocol-based pharmacotherapy management (PBPM) to facilitate the selection of an optimal saline solution to dissolve injectable medicines. The pharmacist could change the prescription according to the protocol. A plastic bottle of saline solution could be provided when a kit of saline solution was prescribed as the dissolving solution for injectable drugs in ampules or in vials other than integer numbers. The purpose of this study was to identify the percentage of injection orders that were changed to the optimal saline solution as a result of PBPM and to evaluate the economic and time benefits. The percentage of infection order changes to optimal saline solutions increased from 2.5% (21/848) before PBPM introduction to 91.3% (647/709) after PBPM (P < 0.05). The cost reduction for the 6 months after PBPM implementation was 46,865 yen, and the reduction in the enquiry times was 204 min. PBPM can be used to select the optimal saline solution to improve operational efficiency and to contribute to cost reduction.