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DRUG SERIALISATION: ORGANIZATIONAL AND ECONOMICAL IMPACTS FOR HOSPITAL PHARMACIES (submitted in 2019)

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European Statement

Selection, Procurement and Distribution

Author(s)

Quentin HIVER, Agathe ROGER, Marine EGOT, Ivan VELLA, Marie-Hélène TYWONIUK

Why was it done?

Community and hospital pharmacists are required to apply the European directive on falsified medicines. In France, we are currently undergoing a transition phase for the progressive generalisation of serialisation. French pharmacies are more or less ahead of schedule for the implementation of decommissioning. In our pharmacy, the decommissioning has been operational since February 2019. After 8 months of practice, we are able to provide data as a basis for work and thinking.

What was done?

Determining and evaluating, by feedback approach, the organisational and economical impacts of drug serialisation for a hospital pharmacy

How was it done?

• Step-by-step description of the supply chain after implementation of decommissioning. • Collection of the man-hours necessary for: decommissioning implementation, software training, routine decommissioning, problem solving. • Census of financial investments

What has been achieved?

After analysis of our supply chain, the reception stage appeared to be the most favorable for decommissioning, in terms of practicality, safety and traceability. Several steps have thus been added at reception: Identification of serialized boxes, manual scan, checking of the decommissioning report and the number of decommissioned boxes, printing of the report. The pharmaceutical time necessary for the decommissioning implementation has been estimated to up to 28 hours. The software training was made in small groups of 2−3 agents, requiring 9 minutes per agent on average. The decommissioning is currently requiring 17 minutes for 100 boxes. Over 8 months, the time necessary for the pharmacists to solve problems linked with serialisation (non-operational Hub, corrupted database, error message at decommissioning…) was estimated to up to 7 hours. The financial investment amounts to 17200 euros (software+ergonomic desk+man-hours at implementation).

What next?

The decommissioning itself doesn’t have a major impact on the pharmacy’s organization. But, ensuring a clear and safe supply chain, to identify which boxes must be decommissioned and which boxes can be dispensed, is time-consuming. It goes through a proper working environment with a forward supply chain and traceability tools. Moreover, the encountered problems were mainly due to computer failures, requiring a performing software with an efficient maintenance. We are currently working on improving the ergonomics of the workstation to avoid the risk of musculoskeletal disorders due to decommissioning.

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