OBJECTIVE To provide reference for improving the level of hospital pharmaceutical management for operating room drugs. METHODS The operating room pharmacy of our hospital utilized the concept and means of the Internet of Things （IoT） to build an intelligent IoT system for operating room drugs （hereinafter referred to as the “IoT system”）， and optimized and improved it. The quality of drug management in the operating room of our hospital during the initial phase of the IoT system （Q1 2022） and after optimization and improvement （Q1 2023） were compared by setting indicators from four aspects： quality， efficiency， cost， and satisfaction. RESULTS After more than a year of optimization and improvement， our hospital has built a traceable IoT system for the entire drug process that integrated surgical anesthesia systems and hospital information systems， with the direction of drug circulation in the operating room as the axis， using intelligent drug vehicles as the hardware foundation， and anesthesia doctor’s order information system as the software medium. After the optimization and improvement of the IoT system， the standardized score of anesthesia orders in the operating room increased from （68.5±3.5） points in the initial period to （97.0± 2.7） points； the consistency rate between accounts and materials increased from （82.40±8.85）% to （96.50±4.80）%； the time of taking medicine was shortened from （40±8） min to （12±3） min； the frequency of drug withdrawal was reduced from （36.0± 6.5） times/day to （15.5±3.0） times/day； the cost of loss drugs was decreased from （1 292.61±305.90） yuan to （594.24±195.05） yuan； the satisfaction was increased from （80.5±6.5） points to （96.0±3.0） points. All indicators were significantly improved with statistically significant differences （P＜0.05）. CONCLUSIONS The intelligent IoT system constructed by our hospital effectively ensures the accessibility， timeliness， and safety of intraoperative medication， which is conducive to improving the quality of drug management in the operating room.