Background and importance The pharmaceutical validation of oncological prescriptions means improvement in patient safety based on quality criteria from different societies when it is carried out in a generalised, standardised and regulated way.

Aim and objectives To describe the implementation of a computerised checklist for the validation of prescriptions of oncological chemotherapy (ChemO) according to recommendations and clinical practice guidelines; and to evaluate the results of its implementation in terms of safety interventions.

Material and methods The checklist was designed in database format. This included the BOPA and GEDEFO recommendations for validation by having a series of different coloured alerts when laboratory values were not within normal limits for administration of ChemO. From this database the variables number of validations, interventions, type, and acceptance or not by the oncologist were collected from 1 January to 30 June 2019. Demographic data of the patients (age and sex) were also collected. Frequencies and means were analysed for the variables studied.

Results The data of 3050 validated prescriptions were included, with the checklist corresponding to 1162 patients of whom 593 (51%) were women. Mean age of the patients was 59.3 years (σ=15.0). A total of 293 interventions were performed (9.6% of prescriptions). The most common reasons for intervention were related to the diagnosis not reflected in the prescription (165 interventions (5.4%)), the periodicity of the chemotherapy scheme (46 (1.5%)) and the location of the patient within the hospital (63 (2.1%)). Seventeen (0.6%) interventions were related to the scheme, cytostatic, volume and prescribed serum. Regarding the severity of the intervention, 31 (1.0%) required consultation with the oncologist, 22 (70.1%) of which were accepted. Among the latter, the main reason for the consultation was related to laboratory parameters outside normal limits.

Conclusion and relevance The application of a checklist to the validation of the prescription served to improve patient safety as it standardised the process and marked the order for all the items reviewed. It was also useful for unifying the criteria among pharmacists and was helpful in the training of resident pharmacists.

References and/or acknowledgements No conflict of interest.