Workshop 2: Preparation of the ready-for-use Oral Liquid Medication (OLM)

Even if the preparation of the centralized automated dispensing of solid oral dosage forms follows a general growth trend in the hospital campuses, (80 to 100 robotic distribution systems in 2015), the preparation of the Oral Liquid Medication (OLM) is still more a nurse operation.

The ANSM received numerous notices for medication errors or risk of errors linked with an incorrect use of dosage and administration devices (diversity of devices) as well as erroneous interpretation of the prescribed quantities.

Numerous pharmacists implemented recommendations for nurses to mitigate medication administration errors (dosage precision, pipette dropper usage and cleaning, OLM dilution, mixing misses, extemporaneaous compounding, conservation conditions).

Some rare institutions could put in place manual dispensing in the pharmacy itself or a centralized automated dispensing which guarantees hygiene best practices and sufficient precision.

These automated preparations started being developed around 10 years ago and perfectly match the institutions requirements where the OLM prescriptions are relatively high (psychiatry, pediatric, gerontology…

A survey conducted by CUAP in 2013 (15 institutions, 12,000 beds) has demonstrated the issues encountered by our fellow colleagues to ensure adequate preparation quality as well as medication administration. Among the 15 Hospital Pharmacies surveyed, 10 of them were contemplating putting in place a manual (3) or an automated (7) centralized preparation center.

The workshop will be the opportunity to share information related to the practices implemented in our institutions and their evaluation. We will be using a practice evaluation quiz to help design a best practices template related to the preparation of the OLM.