The hospital pharmacy of Claraspital covers a diverse range of activities throughout the entire medication process. The main task is to provide the hospital patients with pharmaceuticals, infusion solutions, disinfectants, the production of patient-specific cytostatic solutions according to international quality standards GMP for patients with cancer as well as the compliance with the legal regulations. The tasks include economic purchasing, emergency medicine at home and abroad, optimal warehousing, antidote storage, control of narcotics, poisons and alcohol, and sales and consumption statistics.

Other services include activities that optimize safety in the medication process: setting the range of medicines together with the Drug Commission, distributing the drugs safely to the departments, providing information and advice on medicines, care and patients, medication database management, collaboration in clinical studies, analysis of CIRS cases, activities in interdisciplinary commissions and projects, education and training.

Logistics encompasses all the tasks from the ordering of pharmaceuticals to the purchase of goods from industry and wholesalers, the receipt, storage, provision and distribution of medicines to the ward pharmacies. The economic, rational and timely supply of medicines in the interests of the patient is at the center.
Every year, around 10 million francs worth of medicines are used in Claraspital. Around half of the costs are attributable to Oncologica (anticancer drugs). Every year, around 250,000 medication packages are delivered to and from the hospital pharmacy.

In Claraspital, cytostatics (chemotherapy, anti-cancer drugs) are prepared for each patient individually just prior to administration. The medicines are dosed by the oncologist depending on body size and weight, blood count, kidney and liver function. They are very expensive, must be precisely dosed and produced under aseptic conditions (free of particles, viruses, bacteria) in a cytostatic laboratory (LaminarAirFlow), which is located in a clean room. The preparation requires special protective measures for the producing person, since the substances are not tumor specific, but also attack the healthy cells. Compliance with standardized workflows helps us to ensure consistent quality and safety for the patient, staff and the environment.

At the center of this patient-specific production is the software cato®. This program is used by both the oncologist to create the electronic prescription, the hospital pharmacy for therapy control and therapy, as well as the care for the administration to the patient. All data is stored in a database and is always available and traceable.

Each prescription is checked by the hospital pharmacist on the basis of the patient data before production according to clinical-pharmaceutical aspects. Thus, as well as through the exact verification of the manufacturing accuracy by the software cato®, an optimal therapy safety for our patients is guaranteed.

The apothecaries of the hospital pharmacy work in interdisciplinary projects and commissions. They run the Medicines and Materiovigilance Committee and are members of the Materials, Hygiene, Haemovigilance, Safety and Nutrition Commissions, Onco and CIRS teams.

Medicines and their combinations are complex. They do not always cause only positive, but also undesirable effects. Medications can interact with each other, i. disturbing each other in the body and thus appear too strong, too weak or not at all. In addition, the hospital pharmacy gives information about the drug to doctors, nurses and patients. However, also questions about the composition, durability, miscibility, divisibility, probe handling etc. are answered. At the request of the doctor, drug consultations are carried out.

Drug safety is a top priority at Claraspital, and the hospital pharmacy constantly seeks to optimize the safety of the medication together with the doctors and nurses in the hospital.

The hospital pharmacy participates in the education of pharmacy students. In Claraspital, both the internship and the 11-week internship can be completed as a pharmacist assistant. In addition to the hospital pharmacy, students are given an insight into the entire hospital operation.