Abstract

ROLE OF THE PHARMACIST INDETECTING CHEMOTHERAPY MEDICATION ERRORS IN MEDICAL CITY DEPARTMENT

*Hanan Sabah Ahmed Al-Jumaili, High Dip., Saba Sabah Ahmed Al-Jumaili, Phd., Ahmad Shihab Ahmad Al-Gburi, C. A. B. CM.

Abstract

Medication errors in hematology could cause clinical problems because of low therapeutic indexes and high toxicity of hazardous drugs. In each situation all doses should be calculated accurately by the physician and the pharmacist. The most common errors are involved in prescribing and ordering, so we need new strategies to eliminate the chemotherapy medication error by using a computerized prescribing systems, specialized chemotherapy equipment to protect the personals by using closed system technique in reconstitution of chemotherapy drugs, chemical quality testing and proper assessment are needed for technician, education to be undertaken as often as possible, continue efforts to promote standards, guidelines, technological innovation and a national prescription form for hospitals, to be applied uniformly and used as training tool. So the aim of this study is to reduce the possibility of errors that occurs during chemotherapy preparation, and the importance role of the clinical pharmacist in hematology department in detecting errors in prescription of hazardous drugs. A retrospective study in hematology center (adult department) was designed to compare between two periods, (24) months at the beginning of working and the last (24) months which reviewed errors detected by the pharmacists in the chemotherapy request, we got a reduction of documented paper errors (18.6834%). We conclude that the important components to avoid errors are computerized system, standard guidelines, technological innovation and chemical quality testing.

Keywords: Medication error, Chemotherapy, Chemotherapy preparation, Hazardous drugs.