Hospital Pharmacy Sued for Contaminated Compounded Medication

Bellevue, WA — USA Today on Tuesday reported on the safety of compounded medicines that are made for hospital patients either in their own pharmacies or at contracted outside pharmacies (“Deaths spur debate about drugs made in pharmacies,” Appleby, USA Today).

Pharmacy OneSource’s Simplifi 797 software service helps hospital pharmacies monitor and manage the quality compliance of USP Chapter 797 sterility guidelines.

The article profiled Mary Washington Hospital in Virginia, where at least 11 cardiac surgery patients developed serious bacteria infections last year after their hearts were injected with a contaminated solution mixed at a pharmacy that contracted with the hospital. Three of the patients died and eight plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit against the hospital and Central Admixture Pharmacy Services, who compounded the product.

Twelve state pharmacy boards so far have adopted the new USP Chapter 797 compounding standards set in 2004. Nevada is currently changing its rules and other states are considering adopting the standards as well.

“The importance of following USP 797 guidelines can not be overstated,” said Keith Streckenbach, Executive Vice President of Pharmacy OneSource. “Well-documented processes carried out by trained personnel with ongoing quality monitoring and improvement have been proven to reduce the likelihood of defective product, or in pharmacy’s case, contaminated medication reaching the patient.”

Simplifi 797 is a web-based application that automates, integrates and streamlines the quality activities and documentation required to meet USP Chapter 797. Simplifi 797 utilizes expert rules of Eric S. Kastango, MBA, RPh, FASHP, manages task scheduling and monitoring and automates the reporting of exceptions and compliance. In addition, practice-based policies and procedures are integrated into the application to simplify compliance and include important aspects such as staff competencies, environmental monitoring, as well as media qualification.

In addition to USP Chapter 797 standards, the portfolio of web-based pharmacy software services by Pharmacy OneSource addresses more than 80 JCAHO Standards and Elements of Performance in medication management and other areas.

For more information, please visit http://www.pharmacyonesource.com

About Pharmacy OneSource:
Pharmacy OneSource is pharmacy's #1 documentation and formulary software as a service provider. More than 1,000 healthcare organizations in the U.S. utilize one or more of our HIPAA compliant web-based applications: Accupedia, Amplifi, DIOne, Quantifi, ScheduleRx, Simplifi 797, and UnitStock.

Pharmacy OneSource’s software services help pharmacies standardize high performance pharmacy emphasizing measurable financial, quality and productivity results.