Taking Care of Each Other

As an organization, it is our responsibility to ensure that our caregivers are given tools to perform their tasks in a safe environment. In that spirit, we have worked across our departments to achieve this goal and strengthen the strategic priorities set by CCAD leadership. 

It is a well-known fact that healthcare personnel experience adverse effects from occupational exposure to hazardous drugs. Therefore, it is our responsibility to implement best practices that will help promote patient safety, worker safety, and environmental protection. These practices should cover all aspects of product journey starting from inclusion of a medication to our formulary until it goes to waste. 

This particular story is about our work to address caregiver safety at the start of the journey. We found opportunities not only to help our caregivers at CCAD, but potentially benefiting every institution here in the emirates of Abu Dhabi. 

Here is what we did and why we believe this fits very well with the strategic priority “taking care of each other”. 

Here is what we accomplished over last few months:

1.     Reviewed all formulary medications to identify which ones are categorized as “hazardous agents” by the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH).

2.     Dedicated a separate area for storage in distribution center and in pharmacy with clear marking.

3.     Developed directions for staff on how to handle these agents.

4.   Tagged each of these agents in Lawson as “hazardous agents” so that when a purchase order is generated, a supplier will receive a notice. Suppliers are then expected to send us these hazardous medications in a separate box with appropriate labeling.

Next, we will work with our suppliers over next few months to help them identify all NIOSH medications (on CCAD formulary or NOT) in their respective databases, so that they can adopt same best practices to deliver hazardous medications to other hospitals and clinics. This will improve safety conditions for all in Abu Dhabi and beyond. We are very proud of this accomplishment and want to recognize all team members who helped in one or more aspect of this project from start till now.