![Expan the Geriatirc Resource Nurse Program](imgs/NK_Rodriguez-Vick-Shea-Garza.jpg)
Decreasing Late Medications in the Cancer Center
In early 2019, Cancer Center patients experienced significant delays in medication administration. Delays were so significant that some patients required second doses of their pre-medication because the effects had worn off before they received chemotherapy. Some patients could not receive their medications in the clinic because of the delays, and were admitted to Short Stay for their infusions. Diego Rodriguez, manager of the Cancer Center, and Theresa Shea, nursing unit coordinator, reviewed the issue and determined that workflow between Cancer Center and Pharmacy created the issues, and created an improvement plan.
By changing the process of sending the full list of patients and ordered medications for the day to Pharmacy all at once, to sending the orders just prior to each patient's arrival, the average time from patient arrival to time of medication administration decreased 68%.
This improvement led to increased patient satisfaction and improved morale among the nurses.
![Cancer center patient arrival to medication graph](imgs/graphs/NK_graph.png)