Seminar PQ2: Ready to administer drugs – Is everything under control?

Linked to EAHP Statements

Section 2 – Selection, Procurement and Distribution: Statements 2.2, 2.6 
Section 3 – Production and compounding: Statements 3.1, 3.2, 3.5
Section 5 – Patient safety and quality assurance: Statements 5.2, 5.6, 5.10

ACPE UAN: 0475-0000-18-023-L04-P. A knowledge based activity.

Abstract

While you read this abstract, multiple drugs are being prepared in wards and in the pharmacy department at your hospital. Are they correctly prepared? Are they contaminated? Are health care workers and patients protected from exposure to hazardous agents?

If you are asking yourself these questions, it is possible you will need to analyse what is happening in your own hospital with drug preparation and administration in order to design a strategy that minimizes identified risks. In this scenario ready-to-administer drugs, as well as ready-to-use drugs, can be an option to take in to account. Compounding these drugs at the pharmacy department will not always be possible without additional resources and it may be necessary to search the market to find different solutions. We will also need to take in to account existing legislation and available guidelines especially with those drugs known to be dangerous to human health.

Learning objectives

After the session, the participant should be able to:
• to gain knowledge on local and national experiences in this field;
• to be able to determine when ready-to-administer drugs are useful in our setting and share information on what drugs are available on the market in European countries.

Educational need addressed

The preparation of intravenous drugs is a critical point of the process for both the patient and the worker. Hospital pharmacists have to be updated and alert in relation to the existing risks and strategies for their minimization.

Keywords: infection control, standardisation, contamination, worker and patient protection to exposure.