Study of drug wastage rate and knowledge of operating room employees toward drug wastage in Ayatollah Kashani Hospital in Shahrekord, 2012-2013

Medications are allocated a large proportion of hospital's budget. Due to increase in healthcare efficacy, much attention was paid to medication's costs. This study was conducted to study drug wastage rate of some medications in ophthalmology, ENT and operating room wards and nurses’ knowledge toward drug wastage in Ayatollah Kashani hospital in Shahrekord. This cross-sectional study, waste rate and financial costs of some medications used in operating room were examined daily during a three-month period. In this study, nurses, knowledge toward drug wastage was investigated using a researcher-developed questionnaire. The data were analyzed using statistical tests: t- test, and ANOVA. In this study, the highest waste proportion was allocated to propofol (22.4%) in ampoules, pilocarpine (94.9%) in drops, and mannitol (59.3%) in drips. The lowest waste proportion was atropine's (9%) in ampoules. Financially, the heaviest burden cost for each patient was propofol (21000 Rials) and the cheapest atropine's (1066 Rials). In this study, the score of respondent's knowledge of drug wastage was 82%. Considering the different doses of different drugs and different ways for consumption, this amount of wastage reported in this study cannot be justified. Therefore, responsible managers should pay more attention to consumption factors like producing.