Quantification of timeloss within complex tumor therapies.

Abstract

126 Background: There are various studies on reducing the waiting time of tumor patients before therapy sessions. In this study, we investigated how much waiting time within therapy sessions occurs due to delayed administration of the next drug. In addition, digital documented infusion time of specific drugs were determined to calculate waiting time. Both metrics serve as an indication of the potential to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the infusion process. Methods: The therapy sequence of preliminary 29 patients in the Outpatient Therapy Center of the University Hospital Dresden was investigated. PDF export of the prescriptions of all cycles of the patient with the documentation of the therapy sequences from BD Cato is performed. In python the extraction of all time stamps and the processing of all start and stop times of the medication administration took place. Based on this data, waiting time between infusions were calculated. In addition, analysis of the total administration time of the specific medication was performed. Results: This revealed a median of 23 minutes of patient waiting time between infusion sequences (n = 29 patients and 1154 measured infusion changes). We compared 7 specific medications to the intended infusion time, taking particular note of the high variance in duration. We postulate due to standard administration protocols that the infusion time variance indicates additional waiting time. Both metrics are only an indication, since other factors besides the waiting time can also influence the time between two infusions. Conclusions: Treatment time for the same therapy protocol varied widely between patients, both in terms of waiting time between infusions and in the duration of infusion compared to the intended infusion time. Both indicate the opportunity to improve efficiency, thus providing more hospital-free lifetime for patients and increase revenue and standardization for treatment centers.