A centralized intravenous additive system in an Israeli government hospital.

The pharmacy of the Barzilai Medical Center initiated a centralized method for preparation of the sterile i.v. antibiotic dilutions used in the hospital that has proven to be beneficial to the patient and cost-effective to the hospital. With this system, all small-volume bags containing antibiotic dilutions--constituting 58.5% of all the sterile dilutions used in the Medical Center--are prepared centrally in the pharmacy of the hospital rather than in the various wards. Since the method requires professional supervision, it leads to an improvement in the quality of patient care. The solutions are prepared under sterile conditions, and care is taken to ensure their stability as well as to prevent incompatibilities between the antibiotics and the diluents. In addition to the direct benefit to the patient there has been a saving of approximately NIS 200,000/year resulting from the decrease in the number of minibags, syringes and needles, personnel time and wastage.