Outsourcing of chemotherapy preparations: practical exercises

Outsourcing of chemotherapy preparations is clearly defined by legislation. The methodological guide edited by ARS Ile-de-France and updated in 2018 helps French hospital pharmacists to implement outsourcing.

Nevertheless, in real life, when pharmacist have to get started outsourcing due to planned works in their unit or in case of emergency due to a failure of equipments, some practical details could be difficult to solve/face: logistical questions about raw and preparations shipment between the two hospitals, pharmacy technicians training, different softwares, responsibility of each pharmaceutical teams etc.

A specific focus about the unavailability of the chemotherapy prescription and production software, for instance due to a cyber-attack, will be discuss.

Use the medico-economical tool provided by the ARS Ile-de-France (https://www.iledefrance.ars.sante.fr/index.php/medicaments-anticancereux-qualite-securite-bon-usage) could help to choose the most suitable solution: produce in a temporary unit inside the hospital or transfer chemotherapy production to an external partner.

The goal of the workshop is to share around practical exercises and discuss about propositions to solve difficulties. The ARS’s insight will help to complete the discussions on what to do.