The Return on CSTD Investment

Spending on cancer medicines continues to grow, rising to $196 billion globally, and is estimated to reach $375 billion globally by 2027.¹ In the United States, as of 2022, spending rose to $88 billion, up from $58 billion in 2018.¹ With this in mind, it is not surprising that the issue of discarded portions of weight-based drugs from drug vials is a top healthcare concern. 

While more drug manufacturers are moving towards single-use vials, many continue to prefer multi-dose packaging. Both vial types can present with residual drug left behind, known as “hold-up volume” and can result in costly drug waste for the hospital pharmacy.² The ability to drain all of a drug from a vial could also be impacted by the variety of stopper designs and features.²

Significant portions of drugs are discarded each year, and the need to find ways to minimize this has felt pressure from Congress, hospitals, and even individual clinicians.³ 

In addition, after a dose is carefully measured, residual medication in the vial is discarded per USP <797> requirements and facility safety protocols.
 
To help address waste, pharmacies may consider implementing a CSTD system with a vial spike designed to be fully draining.³

Such a vial spike features an optimized drain lumen on the spike tip, allowing for a range of minimum and maximum vial stopper interference to aid the full withdrawal of vial contents and minimize the potential for hold-up volume.³ Less drug waste is money well spent on the right CSTD.

Take advantage of choice when taming vapor containment costs

When you’re accessing hazardous drug vials, containing vapors is imperative for supporting safety protocols. CSTD vial spike technology with either air capture or air cleaning options can help accomplish this. 

Both technologies help minimize exposure to drug vapors, but they are different, and one is not necessarily better than the other. For example, air cleaning technology provides an easy-to-use and cost-effective method to filter drug vapors while air capture offers a barrier method to contain drug vapors. 

Depending on the vendor, you may be pigeonholed into one or the other because that’s all your vendor offers. Or your facility protocols favor only one technology. But with a vendor that offers both, you can choose what works best for your facility and USP <800> compliance while aligning with your safety protocols and cost-saving measures.

Time is money: How to move hazardous drug priming to nursing

Preparing hazardous drugs is no simple feat, with the pharmacy doing the bulk of priming duties due to safety requirements. However, keeping the time-consuming priming process in the pharmacy can slow the delivery of drugs to the floor. 

Subsequently, this can lead to longer chair times as patients wait for infusions, while you watch administration fee capture dwindle. 

Moving priming tasks from the pharmacy to nursing could help your facility speed up processes and get costs under control. But how can nursing safely prime without the rigorous environmental controls found in the pharmacy?

Some vendors offer infusion sets with pre-bonded CSTD technology, which can allow the priming process to be safely performed by nurses. Such a process adjustment could potentially save hours of pharmacy and nursing time, as well as up to $16,500 in administration fee savings for the average cancer center.⁴

Get help selecting technology that works with your workflows

In finding and implementing CSTD technology that supports your workflows, complies with USP <797> and USP <800>, and increases value and cost savings long-term, it can help to have expert guidance. 

With a hazardous drug delivery assessment, you can obtain a clear picture of what is working, identify areas of concern, and receive findings and recommendations for processes and products to help streamline the compounding and delivery of hazardous drugs in your facility.
 
A complementary hazardous drug delivery assessment from ICU Medical can help support your next steps toward achieving compliance and adopting CSTD technology, as well as the exploration of other technologies to further your efforts to reduce exposure risk and enhance workflows – all while getting substantial returns on your investment. Let’s talk.