Reducing drug wastage on the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU)

When Lead Nurse Barbara Childs saw 17 bottles of the same drug opened for only 10 patients and costing £51 each, she thought, "this just does not add up". Enlisting the help of her colleagues, Barbara decided to investigate ways of reducing drug wastage on CICU.

The key elements the team explored were pharmacy wastage, how the unit was using particular drugs and the methods by which they stored their medicines.

Having reviewed the stock, they calculated what would be the minimum safe amount required to be stored on the unit for each drug and reduced their stock accordingly.

They then decided to introduce a better way of storing medicines on the unit, which would not only reduce waste but also improve the way they treated their patients.

By disposing of a large fridge and replacing it with much smaller fridges which had enough capacity to hold one tray per patient, they became more patient specific when storing medicines, thus reducing waste, but also making it easier to ascertain which drug was needed for which patient.

Furthermore, four small medicine cabinets were placed around CICU which made drugs more accessible across the unit. However, as they were small, they were not over stocked, reducing over ordering and expired medicines. This allowed the nursing team to be more efficient as drugs were more accessible and kept in a more orderly fashion.

"Getting everyone involved is important," says Barbara. "We are all tax payers. This is all of our money and we have a responsibility to use it in the best way possible. By saving money on waste, we can use this to fund other things such as nursing posts or new equipment".

Barbara believes that keeping up the momentum is important and ensuring that people are motivated to help and do their part. CICU has now saved £15,000 on drugs as a result of Barbara’s determination to change the way medicines are stored.