title: An Anticancer Drug Unit for the whole provincial oncologic network of Piacenza: improving safety and savings.
abstract: In recent years, the expenditure for cancer care is increased largely due to the increase in cancer prevalence, demographic changes and incorporation into clinical practice of new and expensive drugs. For these reasons, solutions to contain costs are necessaries. The drugs-related expenditure is proportionally higher in oncology than in other medical specialties and overcomes staffing costs for outpatient care. The introduction of additional measures to contain and reduce expenditures such as waste reduction and human resources optimization is highly desirable. On April 2013, we started a day-to-day monitoring of the consumption of drugs and developed an internal protocol for waste minimization, consisting of five measures. A computerized research through Medline, Cancerlit and Embase was performed, applying the words drug waste, cost-containment, Anticancer Drug Unit and stability instructions. Articles and abstracts were also identified by back-referencing from other relevant papers. Selected for the present review were papers published in English without limit of year. The day-to-day monitoring of the consumption of drugs and the internal protocol for waste minimization were able to achieve a saving of <euro>15,700 every month. The projection of an annual cost-saving result of <euro>188.00 corresponds to a recovery of 4 % on the spending for oncologic drugs. Our data show that in a proper structure working according to the standards of quality, safety and sterility, preserving and reusing the drug waste within the limits imposed by the datasheets, it is possible to achieve a cost-containment policy and produce durable benefits.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento Oncologia - Ematologia, Ospedale Guglielmo da Saliceto, Via Taverna 49, 29121, Piacenza, PC, Italy, mordenti.patrizia@libero.it.
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mordenti
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vecchia
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Damonti
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Riva
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muroni
authors.forename: Maria Rosa
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Cordani
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cremona
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cavanna
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000191:economics* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003363:Cost Control / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000191:economics*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents