1ISG-011 Reduction of the patient waiting time: what cost for the chemotherapies preparation unit?

BackgroundOur establishment produces approximately 150 chemotherapies per day for 115 patients. In order to reduce the patient waiting time, we decided to anticipate the chemotherapy prescriptions which permit us to prepare a part of the chemotherapies in advance. To overcome the rise in returns generated by that anticipation, we set up standardised doses (five different types by interval of body surface area in m2:2.1) facilitating the reallocation of the chemotherapies returns.PurposeReduce the cost of returns due to the anticipation of chemotherapy prescriptions.Material and methodsFrom January to June 2018, the returns of chemotherapy prescriptions have been listed and analysed to identify the dose (standardised or not), the cost and the cause of the return. The standardised and reassigned doses prescribed chemotherapies have been counted.ResultsIn a period of 6 months we have counted 852 returns for 18 443 produced chemotherapies, which is 1.6% of the total cost of preparations realised during this period. The return causes were based on the prescription itself (diminution of the dose, alteration of biology report, change of protocol) and on the patient’s condition (alteration of the global condition, infection, hospitalisation). Seventy-nine per cent of returns were from anticipated chemotherapies (in order to reduce the patient waiting time), however 16% of these returns could have been reassigned. The standardised dose preparation represented 40% of the returns, 42% of which had been reassigned and it permits a reduction in costs of one-third.ConclusionThis standardised work produced a reduction in the return cost of 37%. At the moment, 21% of the prescriptions are standardised. To reduce more the return cost while maintaining the patient care quality, we would like to increase the standardisation and improve the stability of chemotherapy bags.References and/or acknowledgementsNo conflict of interest.