Off-hours unavailability of drugs during emergency situations with automated drug dispensing machines.

摘要

To the Editor: Automated drug dispensing machines (ADDMs) are promoted to reduce drug dispensing costs and to reduce medication administration errors. Although concern exists, few situations have been reported where ADDMs have impaired patient care. In the months preceding this report, our hospital began using ADDMs (Accudose, McKesson Automation, Pittsburgh, PA, USA) as the only source of anesthetic drugs outside regular business hours. Previously, additional drug sources were available in addition to ADDMs. Over a period of five months, we observed five instances involving six patients of approximately 8,000 (0.08%) where a delay in drug administration occurred during emergency situations.