BD Cato™ Pharmacy Module

BD Cato™ Pharmacy provides the functionality for the gravimetric and volumetric preparation of the prescribed medications including plausibility checks, setup for preparation and necessary tracking, traceability and documentation for validated environments.

The Pharmacy department of the Radboud university medical center in the Netherlands has a compounding unit that compounds (preparation for administration) over 60,000 units annually, using the BD Cato™ workflow system. About half of the preparations are products for outpatient care, mainly elastomeric pumps with antibiotics. As the manual filling of large numbers of elastomeric pumps puts a lot of physical stress on the technicians, we have implemented the KIRO® Oncology robot for automated compounding of non-cytostatics, being antibiotics. The BD Cato™ system has been integrated for bi-directional communication with the KIRO® robot and its workflow system KIRO® Link. The two systems have different set-ups and both BD Cato™ as well as Kiro-Grifols have put large effort in incorporating the IV robot into the Radboudumc workflow.

Currently, with the help of BD Cato™ we have bi-directional communication between the Epic hospital system used to prescribe cytostatics and BD Cato™. By putting all the pieces together BD Cato™ enables us to benefit the most from automation to support our workflow for compounding. ”

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Anna De Geode
Lead Aseptic Pharmacist and Qualified Person
Radboud University Medical Center, Netherlands

GAMP5 compliant preparation of IV medications (e.g. cytotoxics) is a complex process for everyone involved. There is a need for thorough documentation of each step, from order to production. This can be labour intensive, and requires the pharmacy to ensure that the preparation follows a clear and validated path. Not only should each contingency be covered by your standard operating procedures (SOP) but that staff adhere to them.

Gravimetric preparation of cytotoxic and other drugs by means of an electronic scale constantly monitors whether doses are within the required tolerances. BD Cato™ provides additional safety as it identifies new and previously used vials based on their reference weight. Step-by-step compounding instructions are eliminating the need for manual calculations and barcode scanning is used for the further verification.

With BD Cato™ you are free to choose between gravimetric and volumetric preparation (without scales). During the volumetric preparation the pharmacist receives automatically generated parts lists, preparation instructions and the module allows to print out labels

BD Cato™ does not allow any deviation from the preparation process once approved by pharmacist. The label issued at the end of the preparation evidences strict compliance with the approved dosage and procedures, effectively reducing supervision and monitoring.

The sophisticated management of remnants enables the safe use of one vial for several preparations. Detailed reports on consumption and costs support the pharmacy in the planning of purchases.

Costs can be reduced considerably with the help of the integrated management of vial remainders and campaign manufacturing.

The BD Cato™ Pharmacy module documents every step of the gravimetric workflow and ensures with hard stops that the right step, drug, dose and volume is done before proceeding.

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