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Impact of nuclear medicine exam cancellations in radiopharmacy Volume 40, issue 1, Mars 2021

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Authors
1 Service de radiopharmacie, Hôpital Privé d’Antony, Antony, France
2 Service de médecine nucléaire, Hôpital Privé d’Antony, Antony, France
3 Service de radiopharmacie, Hôpital Sud Francilien, Corbeil-Essonnes, France
4 Service de radiopharmacie, Hôpital Saint-Louis, Paris, France
* Correspondance

Exam cancellations on the day are a major problem in nuclear medicine/radiopharmacy in terms of organization and loss of radiopharmaceutical. They can lead to delayed patient care and have an economic impact on the healthcare organization. Objectives are to establish an inventory in our service, to identify cancellation root causes and consequences, to compare our results with other nuclear medicine services and to implement new corrective actions such as educational videos. Exams cancellations data have been extracted since 2017. We compared by email our situation with other radiopharmacists who are members of the French Society of Radiopharmacy. Nuclear medicine questionnaires were created and distributed to caregivers and patients, in order to identify risks and priority concepts where communication was required. Thanks to the answers obtained, scenarios were designed for two educational video productions. Cancellation data have not shown any real improvement following actions previously implemented (comparable to those of other nuclear medicine services), but have revealed significant economic and organizational problems. The main reasons of cancellation are the poor preparation on the day of the examination or the patient not showing up. These results are consistent with the answers of patient and caregiver questionnaires. The created videos enabled us to communicate on our activity, inform and educate patients and caregivers. The first feedbacks obtained after the movies have been broadcasted were positive.