The magazine Impresa Sanità interviewed Deenova, on how health services companies are supporting the National Health System in this period of emergency.
The interview highlights how the management of medication in unit dose is proving to be an important optimization tool for hospital pharmacies.
Together, we are stronger than the virus.
Deenova – Previously Santa Lucia Pharma Apps – develops and provides solutions for the management of medication and medical devices in the hospital. Through the interaction between software, automated technologies and specialized services, Deenova contributes to create more efficient, simpler to manage and safer hospitals for patients.
This contribution is even more important in this period of emergency, as it allows to optimize patients therapies through the packaging and dispensing of medication in unit dose, reducing waste , especially for those medication which availability is limited and that are therefore more precious.
“Our company – says Fulvio Rudello, Chief Operations Officer – provides high-tech services for the management of medication and medical devices for the hospitals; many of our main customers are in Lombardy and Emilia Romagna, the regions with the highest incidence of people affected by coronavirus so far. In this period of emergency our service and our solutions are critical to guarantee clinical activities. In fact, we deliver medication directly to the hospital wards, while our technologies, in particular the automatic dispensing cabinet, automatically prepares most of the therapies for the patients, alleviating the work of the nurses, in a situation in which the configuration of the hospitals it is constantly changing to cope with the emergency ».
The presence of Deenova staff in the hospital ward implies their safety to reduce as much as possible the risks of contagion: “Deenova’s activity – says Massimiliano Morandi, head of Sales & Marketing Deenova – takes place mainly in hospitals , therefore we had to face the emergency by putting in place the right strategies to to reduce the potential risk of contamination of the employees working in the hospitals. Among our customers we have the hospitals of Bergamo, Piacenza, Cremona, the ASST of Pavia and the ASL of Alessandria, all in the center of the area most impacted by the emergency. The choice of the company was to intensify efforts to better perform the services, for example we have increased the workforce to compensate for the absence of those employees in quarantine. Furthermore, like everyone else, we have tried to find on the international market the individual protection devices, which could not be found on the national market, and distributed them to our collaborators while ensurimg training on how to use them and on the guidelines to be adopted for correct behavior in the wards with the presence of Covid-19 patients.”
As a consequence of the pandemic, Deenova had to reorganize the unit dose packaging activities at its Gragnanino (PC) site: «Our manufacturing facility and processes have been designed according to GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice), therefore all our services are designed for the safety of patients and operators who use technologies. In recent weeks, activities have been reviewed to meet a changing demand to support therapies for Covid-19 patients. Many of these drugs have become difficult to find and therefore, through unit dose management, hospital pharmacists have been able to optimize their utilization, being able to divide it on the basis of actual needs and without wasting a single dose “explains Rudello.
An example among all is the case of hydroxychloroquine: «This is an” off-label “authorized drug by Aifa for the treatment of Covid-19 patients currently in home therapy. – says Morandi – Usually we do not repackage drugs in unit dose for home therapies, but given the extraordinary situation we decided to join the project promoted by the Liguria region and the Policlinico San Martino Hospital with whom we have been collaborating for many years.
Hydroxychloroquine is a drug that is difficult to find at the moment, supplying it in a unit dose allows to treat almost twice as many patients with the same quantity of packs. When the availability of the drug is scarce, each tablet becomes precious and being able to give it in a single dose allows you to distribute the drug with the right dosage and treat more patients”.
Thinking about a future of return to normality, the role of service companies such as Deenova, focused on creating solutions with high added value for the management of medication and medical devices, remains however central: «Our task is to allow healthcare providers to focus on diagnosis and treatment, while relying on flexible service providers that are able to quickly reconfigure themselves in response to the changing needs of organizations.