Chemotherapy Management Case Study
Chemotherapy management is a highly complex job in both inpatient and outpatient clinics. McKesson's Horizon Meds Manager is a pharmacy information system servicing the chemotherapy pharmacy for patients with cancer in a hospital and clinic. When the patient has signed in, an armband is printed containing a barcode specific to that patient. Doctors input chemotherapy orders in the electronic order entry system by using chemotherapy order sets. Medication orders are sent to the pharmacy information system. The Pharmacist reviews the medication order and creates the orders, including a schedule for drug administration. Details regarding the drug, drug dose, and drug schedule are both printed on the drug label containing the patient's barcode
and transmitted to the electronic documentation and drug administration system.
Pros: Quick order entry and dispensing with universal protocols for medications, IVs, IV Piggy-back (IVPB) and total parenteral nutrition (TPN), and the faultless entry of multiple order types on a given patient. Pharmacists are more efficient using the system and that frees them from clerical tasks for more active partaking in rounding and clinical tasks. It decreases costs through features such as automatic therapeutic interchange, which automates the substitution of preferred formulary items based on dose, frequency, and route conversions.
Cons: systems could not track doses by relative day or dose number, could not document infusion stop time, stat and verbal orders required an override, and pharmacy had to adjust schedules frequently to avoid incorrect time alerts. The system does not record the stop time for infusion as many drugs in the inpatient setting require 12- to 24-hour infusion times. This makes it difficult for both nursing staff and physicians to know when the patient has completed treatment and may be discharged. Integrating technology across the healthcare organization is pivotal to better data transparency, reduction of manual complexities and better communication across departments.
and transmitted to the electronic documentation and drug administration system.
Pros: Quick order entry and dispensing with universal protocols for medications, IVs, IV Piggy-back (IVPB) and total parenteral nutrition (TPN), and the faultless entry of multiple order types on a given patient. Pharmacists are more efficient using the system and that frees them from clerical tasks for more active partaking in rounding and clinical tasks. It decreases costs through features such as automatic therapeutic interchange, which automates the substitution of preferred formulary items based on dose, frequency, and route conversions.
Cons: systems could not track doses by relative day or dose number, could not document infusion stop time, stat and verbal orders required an override, and pharmacy had to adjust schedules frequently to avoid incorrect time alerts. The system does not record the stop time for infusion as many drugs in the inpatient setting require 12- to 24-hour infusion times. This makes it difficult for both nursing staff and physicians to know when the patient has completed treatment and may be discharged. Integrating technology across the healthcare organization is pivotal to better data transparency, reduction of manual complexities and better communication across departments.