Politique de délégation de la vérification contenant-contenu au département de pharmacie du CHUM

Résumé

Abstract

Policy for the delegation of container-content verification in the pharmacy department of the CHUM The modification of standard 90-01 together with the publication of guidelines by the Ordre des pharmaciens du Québec have served as a springboard for elaborating and implementing a policy for delegating various tasks to technical staff in the CHUM pharmacy department.

Objectives:

1. To outline a policy for delegating the verification of container-content (DVCC) regarding the distribution of medications delivered relative to their prescription.

2. To make possible a more judicious use of professional and technical resources in order to accord pharmacists in the distribution sector more time for monitoring.

Methodology: The outline of the policy consisted of the following chronological steps:

1. Definition of its various elements,

2. Presentation of the policy to the pharmacists,

3. Approval by the pharmacists and various decisionmakers of the CHUM,

4. Presentation of the policy to the technical staff,

5. Provision of theory and hands-on training for technical staff,

6. Implementation of the policy and quality control programme.

Result and discussion: The DVCC has been in effect since January 2001 in the three hospitals of the CHUM. To be accorded responsibility for this task, a staff member must have at least six months’ experience in the relevant sector and pass a qualification test. The quality control programme is the cornerstone of the policy: it had to be simple, quick and effective. The programme makes it possible to evaluate the quality of the process on one hand and the efficiency of the technical assistants on the other. After eight months of implementation in accordance with the norms accepted by the pharmacy department, the rate of efficiency of the process had attained 90%. As well, the work of almost three-quarters of the technical staff was shown to be satisfactory.

Conclusion: Container-content verification is the first in a series of technical tasks that are part of the policy of delegation to technical assistants. The quality control programme ensures the integrity of the process and the productivity of the technical staff. The new use of the competencies of technicians increases the quality of care and the profitability of the health system. The delegation policy will soon be extended to include other technical tasks.