Cancer treatment is costly in the United States. The costs will only continue to increase. It is estimated that by 2030 there will be a 34% increase from the year 2015 to reach $246 billion annually. Advancements in cancer care treatments and genomics have helped to produce advanced drugs to combat cancer, however, these drugs are expensive and cost more than $100,000 per person every year.
What is automated chemotherapy dose rounding?
Automated chemotherapy dose rounding is when hospitals make use of their Electronic Health Records (EHR) Software to implement guidelines. These guidelines are supported by various organizations, such as the Hematology Pharmacy Association in 2018. The guidelines are entered into the EMR system which standardizes dose rounding to vital size.
Reducing anticancer medication costs with automated dose rounding
Mayo Clinic and UCSF Health aimed to lower the cost of anticancer drugs for their clinics and hospitals. For this, the healthcare organizations established organization-wide dose rounding standards for anticancer medication and substituting biosimilars (Medications that are nearly identical to expensive originator biologic drugs).
The two healthcare organizations experienced a decrease in the wasted number of vials and saved pharmacists time in manually calculating the rounding dosage by automatically rounding doses to the nearest vial. With automated dose rounding, UCSF Health saved $2.3 million in a year, and Mayo Clinic saved $7.3 million in 6 months.
Improving patient care with automated dose rounding
It is established that automated chemotherapy dose rounding helps to reduce costs for both the patient and the payer. This reduces healthcare financial pressure. Automated chemotherapy dose rounding helps to enhance safety within the pharmacy and the oncology department. It’s simple to have a rounded dose; pharmacists and oncologists don’t have to calculate doses down to minute levels.
Automating does rounding with Epic technology
When the dose rounding was initiated by Mayo Clinic and USCF Health, the pharmacists had to calculate the rounding doses manually, using a calculator or a table. This process lacked transparency. Through Epic EMR Software’s, Beacon oncology application the process of chemotherapy dose rounding was automated and streamlined. Through robust technology when the physician enters a patient’s dose, the rounded dose appears promptly, with details of how it was calculated. This enables the pharmacy staff to receive the order with a rounded dose.
Technology advancements in cancer care have helped oncologists in the US manage cancer treatment plans, enhance patient safety, and improve the quality of cancer care for healthier patients. The implementation of automated chemotherapy dose rounding rules in the electronic health records software helps to reduce drug waste, lower costs, and enhance workflow efficiency.
