Effect of Increased Use of a Closed System Drug Transfer Device and Simplification of Personal Protective Equipment on the Cost of Medical Materials

As a preventive measure for occupational exposure to anticancer drugs, the use of a closed system drug transfer device (CSTD)is not widespread. The main reason for this is the high cost of the equipment. For inpatient chemotherapy(Ⅳ)at our hospital, CSTD was used for the following 3 drugs, cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide, and bendamustine; however, from Nov. 2018, CSTD was used for all chemotherapy drugs. Meanwhile, the personal protective equipment (PPE) for ward nurses was simplified. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of increased CSTD use and simplification of PPE on the cost of medical materials. Information collected between Apr. and Sep. 2019 was extracted from health records. The total number of inpatient chemotherapy treatments during the study period was 970. The increase in the cost of drug administration equipment due to expansion of CSTD use was ¥1.74 million per half a year. However, the cost savings from simplifying PPE was approximately ¥290,000 per half a year, which is about 16.8% of the increase in cost. We hope that the amount of reimbursement will increase and that device prices will decrease as CSTD use becomes more widespread.