Hazardous Drugs: The Last Fight

Combining drugstores currently is providing up for a variety in USP’s Part <800> Hazardous Drugs —Managing in Healthcare Settings. The renewed part, which practices the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s standards and classification of dangerous drugs, matches official in December. 1. 

Pharmacy technology businesses are working to help compounding medicines meet these expected patterns and operate the update.

Canada-based Synergy Medical employs a limited pick-and-place in their SynMed blister pack industrialization. Mild suction eliminates the oral substantial from the medicine container and enables it to be gently lowered into the patient-specific blister.

Antineoplastic Medications

Synergy Medical manager of marketing Samantha Cockburn stated, “With SynMed, no cover other than the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) standard stainless iron pipette is in connection with the medicines, really setting the risk of cross-contamination. Power is connected through each pipette, and any pill powder is swept through a series of filters, finishing in a HEPA (High-efficiency particulate air) filter.”

“Antineoplastic medications (Group 1 NIOSH dangerous medications) have previously worked independently, manually put in the blisters of a specific sufferer with the aid of the SynMed Assist guidance system; they are outside of the automation,” Cockburn said. 

Further pushing out all Group 2 and 3 non-antineoplastic NIOSH dangerous drugs from blister pack automation could impact as many as 50 extra pills, Cockburn described. “This could mean a significantly less effective production process, putting all those pills by hand, but more importantly, would potentially increase the operator’s exposure to the dangerous medication.”

Medications Being Studied

If this class of medicine is left within the industrialization, all Group 2 and 3 HD receptacles will be known. When replenishment is needed, the administrator will be informed and suggested to wear a gown and gloves.

“Assuredly, if the druggist has any company as to the security of holding a particular molecule inside the electronic SynMed operation, told medicine should be placed in the patient-specific blister card by hand,” told Cockburn.

PioneerRx, based in Dallas, Texas, has had an extended compounding module developed into its drugstore software system, and in the last few months, it has made improvements to the blade.

“If the medication is on the NIOSH dangerous drugs list, we have the way to pop up an alert that tells you, and this is a severe drug. It’s in Table 2, which means that it is only carcinogenic.

So that way, the drugstore can say, ‘This is a medication I require to use individual security with,” said Josh Howland, vice president of clinical strategy at PioneerRx.

Mountain View Calif.-based Omnicell is doing IV robotics to help pharmacies who do non-sterile compounding meet the expected places.

Central Fill Pharmacies

Jim Stevenson, the vice president of medicine operations plan, stated, “Our dangerous drug handling IV robotics allows the hazardous drug to be prepared and maintained inside closed robotic systems. It minimizes the need for a human to touch the outputs and be required in areas where they potentially could be exposed to any of these hazardous drugs during the development.”

Lastly, Kennesaw, Ga.-based Knapp has an ATD-L1P high-speed medicine counter, for the fastest-moving medications that are treated in mail order and central fill pharmacies. This tech has the advantage of a centralized vacuum system that renders an almost dust-free condition.