Browsing by Subject "sairaala-apteekki"

Pharmacy compounding involves the preparation of customized medications that are not commercially available for individual patients with specialized medical needs. The compounded preparations have many special features, such as the rapid/immediate need for the drug, the preparation of several pharmaceutical dosage forms, and the variation of batch sizes and manufacturing processes. Medicinal products prepared in hospital pharmacies may pose additional risks to patients compared to industrial products. These risks with limited evidence of quality, efficacy and microbiological purity can jeopardize patient safety. The aim of this study was to perform a product specific risk assessment of aseptically processed and terminally sterilized products belonging to the manufacturing range of the hospital pharmacy of Turku University Central Hospital. The study material contained 118 different products. The risk assessment was performed with the help of a risk matrix in which various quality and safety risks have been identified and assessed. The risk points obtained from the different areas of risks were multiplied together to obtain total risk points for each product. The products were qualitatively classified according to the total risk points into low-risk, medium-risk and high-risk products. All total parenteral nutrition (TPN) solutions of the study were classified as high-risk products. TPN solution prepared into a syringe without lipids and TPN solution prepared into an EVA bag without lipids had the highest risk points of the study (6561 points). Most of the eye drops (88 %) and patient controlled analgesia (PCA) pumps (68%) belonged to high-risk category. PCA pump containing morphine, clonidine, bupivacaine, ketamine and saline solution (1944 points) and autologous serum eye drops (1296 points) had the highest risk points of these product types. 60 percent of intraocular injections and half of pain products prepared into syringes were scored as high-risk products. Intravitreal bevacizumab had the highest risk points of intraocular injections (972 points). Medium-risk products were mainly different infusions. Infusions containing defibrotide, oxytocin and onasemnogene abeparvovec had the highest risk points in the medium-risk category. Liquid solutions and patient controlled analgesia (PCA) pumps were the second largest group in this category. All products used in allergy testing, all ointments and all inhalation solutions were in the low-risk category. The risk matrix used in the study can be used to identify high-risk compounded preparations in hospital pharmacies. Risk assessment enables targeting quality assurance more effectively to high-risk products. Risk assessment can be used to manage various risks in pharmaceutical compounding and reduce harm to patients. The results obtained in the study cannot be directly generalized to other hospital pharmacies because the products, manufacturing processes and the amounts of different products prepared vary among hospital pharmacies.

In hospital care many medicines should be usually prepared before they are administered to patients. In Finland Finnish Medicines Agency (Fimea) gives regulatory requirements and instructions for preparation of medicines in hospital pharmacies and action in hospital pharmacies is strictly controlled regularly by Fimea. According to Fimea's instructions hospital pharmacies should also ensure that medicines are prepared properly before they are administered to the patients in hospital wards. Preparing of medicines in hospital wards should be done in accordance with instructions given from the hospital pharmacy. Medicines should be prepared by using aseptic technique in order to protect patient safety. Aim of this study was to develop an assessment tool which can be used to assess the quality of ward- prepared medicines. The assessment tool should be suitable for self-assessment and external audit. Aim of the assessment tool is to ensure the safety of preparation of medicines in the wards and at the end improve patient safety. For the assessment tool ISMP Guidelines for safe preparation of sterile compounds were translated to Finnish. The assessment tool was then developed from the translated ISMP-guideline and other literature. The assessment tool was validated by using two-rounded Delphi-method. Delphi-method is a consensus method in which selected experts evaluate the data. At the first Delphi-round suitability and feasibility of the tool were evaluated and new items were created based on the consensus of experts. At the second round the feasibility of the tool items, which were developed by the first round, were evaluated once again. A total of 19 experts were participated to the Delphi-rounds. After the Delphi-rounds the developed assessment tool contained 64 items for safe preparing of medicines in hospital wards. The developed assessment tool reviews the entire process of preparing medicines and it can be used to identify which items are not followed in preparing of medicines before administering to patients in hospital wards. The developed assessment tool for safe preparation of medicines in hospital wards can be used widely in Finnish hospitals in order to ensure the quality of preparing medicines and detect the deficiencies and errors in preparation processes. By detecting deficiencies and errors in preparing medicines, they can be corrected and processes can be modified appropriate. In this way patient safety can be improved.

For pediatric patients, it is often necessary to resort to off-label use of available commercial products. This may require manual modification of the preparations, which may result in reduced dose accuracy. In the past, there have been discussions about the potential of 3D printing technologies for on-demand manufacturing of medicines in hospitals. Printing technologies can be used to tailor medicines to the individual needs of patients. This could be a possible solution to the lack of commercial products for pediatric patients, for example. Semi-solid extrusion is a printing technique that could potentially be used in the future in hospitals. This study aims to design the simplest possible excipient composition for a printing material for semi-solid extruded preparations for pediatric patients. The finished products will be examined to determine the type of products achieved with this printing method and excipient composition. In addition, the suitability of semi-solid extrusion in a hospital environment will be observed and evaluated. Printing was performed with a pneumatic bioprinter. The desired formulations could not be prepared with a printing material containing only a gel former (poloxamer 407) and a solvent (water). Therefore, a filler (microcrystalline cellulose) was added to the printing material to improve the mechanical strength of the preparations. The model drug used in the study was warfarin sodium and the target strengths of the preparations were 0.1 mg, 0.5 mg and 1.0 mg. The preparations were dried at room temperature for 22-23 hours. The tablets produced in the study were small (diameter less than 7 mm, height less than 2 mm) grid-structured preparations. The method was successful in producing tablets of uniform mass. For all strengths, the tablets passed the European Pharmacopoeia test for uniformity of content of single-dose preparations. Only the 0.5 mg strengths passed the test of uniformity of dosage units. The excipient composition should still be optimized to improve the mechanical strength of the products. The overall preparation time of the formulations should be reduced, for example by shortening the drying time, to make semi-solid extrusion suitable for extemporaneus preparations in hospitals.

The health and social services reform will enter into force in its entirety from the beginning of 2023. With the reform, the responsibility for organizing social and health care will be transferred from municipalities to the responsibility of 21 wellbeing services counties. At the time of writing this thesis, the changes to the medical legislation brought by the reform have not yet been published. Hospital pharmacies and dispensaries take care of Finland's public pharmaceutical services. The tasks of public pharmaceutical services include pharmaceutical logistics tasks, non-industrial pharmaceutical manufacturing, and the preparing of medicines, as well as pharmaceutical expert tasks and services.The aim of this study is to find out the opinions of current hospital district managers, medical directors, and hospital pharmacists about how future pharmaceutical services should be organized in the upcoming wellbeing service counties. The study was conducted using an electronic structured questionnaire, which was sent in October 2021 by e-mail to the heads of all Finnish hospital districts, medical directors, and hospital pharmacists. The survey also included Åland and the Joint Municipal Authority for Social and Healthcare in Central Uusimaa (Keusote). The questionnaire consisted mainly of Likert-scale questions, but the questionnaire also had open answer fields to which respondents were able to add comments and refine their answers. The questionnaire was evaluated by several experts and piloted by two experts. The questionnaire consisted of seven different sections, which addressed the number and concentration of hospital pharmacies and dispensaries, clinical pharmacy services and medication safety, pharmaceutical purchasing and formulary, automation and information systems, co-operation in wellbeing service counties, and pharmaceutical services in a state of emergency and limited resources. The overall response rate to the survey was 50% (n = 34/68). 79 per cent (n = 19/24) of hospital pharmacists and 35 per cent (n = 15/43) of managers and medical directors responded to the survey. Responses were received from all hospital districts, Åland and Keusote. Based on the responses, it is hoped that the activities of hospital pharmacies will be mainly concentrated in wellbeing service counties so that the services would not move too far. Co-operation in individual pharmaceutical service activities could take place in collaborative areas or nationwide. The current number of hospital pharmacies was thought to be sufficient, but the operation of individual dispensaries could be closed or transferred to the administration and coordination of a hospital pharmacy in the area. It is hoped that clinical pharmacy services will be increased, and medication safety officers are desired for at least all wellbeing service counties. It is hoped that purchasing will be centralized nationwide, especially for expensive and rare pharmaceuticals, but the procurement of pharmaceutical formularies could be done by collaborative area, and the formation of the formularies could be done by wellbeing service county or collaborative area. It is hoped that automation and technology will increase in pharmaceutical services and that information systems will become more integrated. Increasing co-operation both between hospital pharmacies and within wellbeing service counties, for example between community pharmacies, was advocated. In the future, resources should be focused on pharmaceutical services personnel and their training, as well as on automation and technological solutions. It is hoped that the crisis preparedness of the pharmaceutical services will be increased in the future.