Evaluation of an Automatic Dispensing Device to Prepare Disinfectants.

To reduce the time and cost needed to make hospital preparations, an automatic dispensing device to prepare disinfectants was developed. We prepared 200 bottles of disinfectant (500 mL) containing 7% ethanol and 0.1% benzalkonium chloride with an automatic device and 200 bottles using the manual process, and then randomly selected preparations were evaluated concerning variations in drug concentrations, stability for long periods and preparation cost. The variations in the drug concentrations in the preparations made with the device were narrower than those observed when using with the manual process. Although the volume of the preparations with the device was less than that when using the manual process, the variation range in the volume in both preparations was similar. Both preparations were stable for 4.5 months at room temperature. The preparation time and cost using the device was about half of that when using the manual process. These results indicate that our automatic dispensing device was found to be very useful in preparing disinfectants.