Preparation of premedication is now carried out in our subsidiary Multiscan Pharma

Some types of drugs used in cancer treatment cause the patient discomfort (side effects), such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, allergies. In these cases, doctors prescribe medicines to relieve these problems and the patient receives them in injection or tablet form before chemotherapy.

Until now, our nurses have prepared everything themselves just before administration (infusion solution or medicine in a syringe) or dispensed it to the patient at home according to the doctor's instructions. Today, the premedication is delivered in the morning, on the day of chemotherapy.

The chemotherapy is prepared centrally in the Multiscan Pharma dilution room, which now also provides the preparation of the premedication. Nurses take over the medication already drawn up in a syringe which is signed with the name of the drug, its grammage, date of preparation and expiry date. The expiry date of a medicine prepared in this way is within a few days. When the patient arrives at the inpatient unit, the nurse administers the individual syringes of medication according to the prescription on the administration sheet. She no longer instills anything, she only takes out the pre-prepared medication. The medication prepared in this way always contains 2 labels, one remains on the preparation and the other is stuck in the documentation of the patient to whom it was applied. At the same time, the medicine must pass through a computerised system that records the medicines dispensed to a particular patient. At the end of the shift, the nurse checks the remaining premedication and disposes of those that cannot be used the next day due to overexposure.

After initial concerns about the new, we can now state that the centralization of the preparation of premedications has proven to be a success, simplifying the dispensing and preparation of medications, while also contributing to patient safety. We are also newly testing QR code readers, which also serve to increase patient safety, but also protect the nurse. They reduce the possibility of potential patient confusion and are another step towards a more modern and safe workplace for patients and staff.

Author. Mgr. Ľubica Elichová, DiS., head nurse at Multiscan Cancer Centre