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Reduce ADEs Involving Chemotherapy:
Use Pre-Printed Orders for Chemotherapy Drugs

Chemotherapy drugs can be extremely toxic due to their potency, so minor errors in dosing can lead to severe adverse drug events. Pre-printed order sheet can be used to list appropriate doses for chemotherapeutic agents, so that prescribers need only "check a box" for the medication and dose desired. Order sheets should only include doses pre-approved by the medical staff and pharmacy, so there is no risk of an unusually high dose being requested by mistake.


Tips
  • Include the following: dose in mg/m2, Body Surface Area (BSA), calculate dose for each administration, dose/24 hours and dose/course of therapy.
  • Restrict chemotherapy orders to a limited group of prescribers approved by the organization.
  • Place dose limits on all chemotherapy drugs.
  • Don’t accept any verbal orders for chemotherapy drugs.
  • Require a peer review from another approved prescriber when a dose is requested that is not on the pre-printed forms.