New Joint Outpatient Chemotherapy Administration Standards

The Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) have released a set of joint standards for the safe administration of chemotherapy in the adult outpatient setting. The standards, published in the journals of both societies (Oncol Nurs Forum. 2009;36:651 - 658 and J Clin Oncol. 2009;27:5469 - 5475), are intended to improve patient safety, reduce the risk of medication errors, increase clinical efficiency, and provide a framework for best practices. The guidelines were created largely in response to recent studies that have examined reports of chemotherapy administration errors among outpatients, and to reports of an increased risk of errors with the administration of new oral chemotherapeutics.