Perioperative Care and Operating Room Management 29 (2022) 100281 Available online 31 July 2022 2405-6030/© 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Perception of anaesthesia staff of an automated drug dispenser as an anaesthesia workstation Running title: Automated Drug Dispenser for Anaesthetics Sara Farsi a, * , Bayan Darwesh b, c , Ragad Jamal a , Abdulhameed Ardawi a , Mahmoud Sharara d a Anesthesia Department, King Abdulaziz University Hospital, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia b Pharmaceutical Services Department, King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah 23734-6850, Saudi Arabia c Pfzer, Jeddah 23734-6850, Saudi Arabia d Benha Faculty of Medicine, Benha University, Egypt A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Patient safety Medication management Operating room Pharmacy ABSTRACT Rationale: Automated drug dispensers have replaced foor stocks and medication cabinets in all hospital areas. Anaesthesia workstations have been proven to be particularly challenging owing to the critical patients under their care and the nature of the medications they administer. Aims and objectives: To understand how well anaesthesia personnel accept an automated drug dispenser cabinet (ADC) as an anaesthesia workstation and investigate its effect on drug management and costs in the operating room (OR). Methods: We used mixed methods. The frst part consisted of a cross-sectional study evaluating anaesthesia staff satisfaction with the ADC using a questionnaire based on the technology acceptance model (TAM). Second, we analysed the expenditure of fve commonly used anaesthetic medications by the OR before and after the introduction of the ADC. Results: We received 63 responses from 96 anaesthesia department employees, giving us a 65.6% response rate. There was a signifcant positive relationship between perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), and technology acceptance (TA) (p<0.001). Regarding PU, 38 (60.3%) respondents felt that the ADC improved their performance as anaesthetists, and 52 (82.5%) felt that it improved patient safety. Regarding ease of use, 45 (71.4%) respondents found the ADC easy to use, and 55 (87.3%) felt that learning how to use the ADC was easy. The satisfaction rate among anaesthesia department employees was 73%. Regarding drug management, the OR expenditure on hyperbaric bupivacaine, propofol, fentanyl, dexamethasone, and ondansetron dropped signif- cantly by 462, 3,516, 1,806, 660, and 258 vials, respectively. The drop in expenditure on these fve medications alone resulted in savings of 35,543.94 SAR (9,744.23 USD). Conclusion: ADCs can replace anaesthesia workstations and lead to cost savings and improved drug management in ORs. However, in order to succeed, cooperation will be required between the anaesthesia providers, pharmacy department, and hospital administration. 1. Introduction Anaesthetists work in a unique environment when it comes to drug administration. A single anaesthetist prescribes, dispenses, prepares, and administers drugs in a short period of time. Unlike in other parts of the hospital, medication orders are not reviewed by pharmacists, and doses are not cross-checked by a nurse before administration. Conse- quently, drug management in the operating room (OR) is particularly challenging. Depending solely on a single anaesthetist’s vigilance in adminis- tering drugs may not be suffcient to prevent drug errors, especially in times of heightened stress. A prospective trial revealed that the inci- dence of drug error per anaesthetic case was 0.96. 1 This incidence was based on physician self-reporting; therefore, the actual incidence could be much higher. In 2017, the World Health Organization declared improving medication safety as its third “Global Patient Safety * Corresponding author. E-mail address: sfarsi@kau.edu.sa (S. Farsi). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Perioperative Care and Operating Room Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pcorm https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcorm.2022.100281 Received 19 December 2021; Received in revised form 4 July 2022; Accepted 22 July 2022