Abstract
We conducted an investigation of inquiries on prescriptions for ambulatory cancer chemotherapy with the aim of using the results in future operational auditing. In the investigation, which was carried out from January to December 2004, we examined the content of the inquiries in detail and classified them into 3 classes which were further broken down into 12 subclasses. Among 3,279 prescriptions, there were 991 inquiries, as the result of which 189 prescriptions were changed. The inquiries prevented potential adverse events in 60 cases.
Our study showed that with prescriptions for ambulatory cancer chemotherapy, it is important to : 1) Check prescriptions against the protocol, 2) Check prescriptions with regard to medication history management and efficacy, 3) Check prescriptions based on pharmacists' expertise and 4) Check prescriptions with respect to 12 points that we specified based on our analysis. We felt that the check in 2) above was particularly important.
Furthermore, seeing the findings of our study as very important, we made arrangements to continue checking ambulatory cancer chemotherapy prescriptions.
