Maintaining Safe Compounding Standards Throughout Your Entire Organization

Patricia Kienle, BSPHARM, MPA, FASHP, discusses how pharmacists can be key players in maintaining safe, sterile compounding standards throughout an entire health system. This video was filmed during the 2019 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Summer Meeting in Boston, MA.

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Patricia Kienle, BSPHARM, MPA, FASHP: Remember that the whole point of doing this is patient safety, so the consistency of how the solutions are handled throughout your organization is essential to make sure that you know what's going on there. And again, from a safe perspective as well as any adverse drug reactions that may occur. The other areas outside of pharmacy, particularly independent practices that have been brought into the health system—it may be new to them. It probably will be new to them, and they may think that they don't have to comply with all those areas, but they do. But it doesn't have to be insurmountable. It needs to be appropriately managed, people need to have a practical way of complying with the standards, and it's certainly able to be done. The educational piece that's there is important, and the identification of definitions that are in the revised 797 concerning preparation for administration or administration of drugs, which is out of scope of 797. You need to follow other policies that are there. But if they are performing the immediate use of compounding, there's simple things that can be done from an educational and facilities standpoint to comply with 797. And pharmacy's key in making that essential over the whole organization.