The country’s first group purchasing organization to form a specialized oncology committee
(London, ON) - Since there are no standardized occupational health and safety guidelines in Canada to handle and deliver chemotherapeutic drugs, hospitals often face related safe practice issues on their own. To help ensure care providers and hospital employees stay safe when handling these hazardous drugs, more than 18 months ago, Medbuy formed a clinical oncology advisory committee, which is comprised of pharmacy professionals from several provinces. It’s the first of its kind in the country and aims to support and enhance service to our Members.
To date, the group has set a new Canadian benchmark with a series of best practice consensus statements for procurement, safe handling, dose preparation and administration of oncology products. These statements enable Members to fulfill quality and safety mandates and, ultimately, limit hospital staff and unnecessary patient exposure to the hazardous agents.
As a part of Medbuy’s Pharmacy program, the clinical Oncology Advisory Committee also draws upon the expertise of prominent safety associations such as the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in the United States and the Canadian Association of Pharmacists in Oncology, as well as other Canadian and International expert organizations. The group has reviewed the most up-to-date safe practice and handling guidelines for chemotherapeutic drugs available. Based on its findings, the group developed a series of best practice consensus statements as well as specific safety criteria for Medbuy to build into our strategic sourcing process, so our Members can confidently purchase the safest, quality products on the market.
“What we have achieved through this initiative could not have been easily accomplished otherwise,” says Moira Wilson, Chair of the Oncology Advisory Committee and Director of Pharmacy at New Brunswick’s Horizon Health Network. “We’ve successfully removed traditional hurdles in and between hospitals, and together, we have done all of the legwork necessary to establish a solid set of best practices for hospitals, as well as Medbuy. What’s more, our efforts signal important safety expectations to the pharmaceutical supplier community, which we hope will lead to the provision of safer products in Canada. This work aims to raise the bar for patient and provider safety every step of the way.”
The best practice consensus statements are divided into two comprehensive sections: hospital practices and product contracting criteria. For example, the group has stated that Medbuy will only contract for “dry” closed-system transfer devices and recommends hospitals use these devices as well. This means the equipment used to prepare and deliver chemotherapeutic drugs to patients must not have any leaks, from the vial in which the drug was purchased through to the dose preparation, administration and materials disposal processes.
In addition to creating these best practice consensus statements, the Oncology Advisory Committee has an ongoing mandate to assist Medbuy in prioritizing and identifying opportunities to promote safe handling and administration of chemotherapeutic drugs. Due to the tremendous success of the collaborative group of Member hospitals, Medbuy will continue to support this group’s work in making the Canadian medication system safer.
The group’s next step in the coming months is to build best practice consensus statements not only for Medbuy Member hospitals to use in their facilities, but also for non-Member hospitals – this way, these newly developed consensus statements can benefit all Canadian healthcare facilities regardless of membership.
-30-
About Medbuy
Medbuy is Canada's longest standing and most progressive healthcare group purchasing organization. We have partnered with health service providers across Canada to reduce the cost of healthcare supplies and services since 1989 and in that time have saved provincial health systems hundreds of millions of dollars. We provide the tools and strategies to manage costs in today's healthcare environment with an unwavering commitment to quality and patient safety. For more information, visit www.medbuy.ca.
Inquiries should be directed to:
James Low
Manager, Marketing & Communications
Medbuy Corporation
jlow@medbuy.ca
www.medbuy.ca
Tel: (519) 652.1688 Ext. 128
Fax: (519) 652.2788