Abstract
Number of medicines has been used to return from wards to inpatient pharmacy due to various reasons. The study was conducted to estimate the number of returned medicines and type of returned medicines from different wards of hospital to inpatient pharmacy of tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the reasons behind return medications were also examined. Around 6.4% of the total dispensed medications were returned to inpatient pharmacy daily from different wards of hospital. The study examined a total of 4410 returned medicines with an average of 141 medicines returned in 28 studied days. Oral dosage form medicines were found to be most common with 66% of total returned medications. Parenteral medications including intravenous infusion and injections contributed around 30% of returned medications. The most common return medication was found to be acetaminophen pre-mixed infusion which is returned by around 12 patients daily. Extra dose dispensing, drug discontinue and patient discharge was found to be the most common reasons with 28, 24.5, and 16%, respectively. Effective communication by nursing staff and physicians with on-duty inpatient pharmacist can reduce the number of medicine return.