Objective: To explore management strategies and guarantee the safety of clinical medication of spare drugs in inpatient ward by investigating on the management status of spare drugs in inpatient ward of children’s hospitals in China. Methods: Using the selfdesigned questionnaire

we conducted survey among 45 children’s hospitals in China

including 34 tertiary hospitals and 11 secondary hospitals. The basic data about the management of spare drugs were collected and further analyzed by software Excel 2010 to investigate the potential risk points of the management

followed by reviewing the policies and regulations

and the literatures

in order to explore a standardized management strategy. Results: In total

853 questionnaires were distributed and 823 valid ones were collected

with effective recovery rate of 96. 5%. The results indicated there were some problems in the management of spare drugs in inpatient ward in children’s hospitals

including excessive kinds and amount of the spare drugs (42. 2%)

inaccurate identification (27. 6%)

unsuitable storage condition or lack of temperature and moisture record (26. 9%)

lack of the record of use

supplement

and damage (25. 3%)

etc. . Conclusion: There are some defects in the management of spare drugs in some of the investigated inpatient wards for manual management at present

which affect the safety and convenience of applying the spare drugs

and there are potential safety hazards in clinical use of spare drugs in wards. Using the automatic and informatized system to trace the spare drugs is an effective method to improve the safety and management of spare drugs in wards from the root.