Due to excessive patient wait times for first chemotherapy
infusions, Patterson Clinic is looking to reengineer its first-day therapy
process for treating cancer. This process starts when the patient
arrives at the facility the morning of the first IV chemotherapy
administration. Next, the physician orders the IV chemotherapy for the
patient. If the physician is on-site, the physician handwrites the
chemotherapy order for the patient the morning of arrival; otherwise
the physician faxes the chemotherapy order from the office to the
clinic. Once the chemotherapy order from the physician arrives, the
patient’s nurse evaluates the order against the protocol, and then a
second nurse performs another check following the same process.
After the nurses check the order, it is scanned to the pharmacy to
continue the process. After the pharmacy has received the order, the
pharmacist completes the first check and prints labels. Prior to
chemotherapy administration, the pharmacy uses a check system that
takes place three times to make sure the order is correct. Completion
of the third check cannot be finished until the patient’s lab results are
completed and verified by the staff. The pharmacy technician
proceeds with compounding the chemotherapy after the third check,
the pharmacist verifies the admixture, and the technician places the
chemotherapy into the infusion cabinet in the oncology unit. At this
time, the premedication’s can be started and the IV chemotherapy can
begin.
. Prepare a flow chart depicting the process for first-day
chemotherapy at the clinic.
. What are some initial opportunities for improvement of the first-day
chemotherapy process?
