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USING AUTOMATED COMPOUNDING DEVICES IN THE PHARMACY
Excerpted from the International Journal of Pharmaceutical Compounding
Using automated compounding devices(ACDs) to improve the accuracy and quality of pharmacy-prepared sterile preparations is becoming common practice. Several sections of the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) Chapter <797> address the use of such devices and provide information for ensuring that they are consistently capable of operating properly and within acceptable tolerance limits. One section in particular,“Verification of Automated Compounding Devices for Parenteral Nutrition Compounding,” focuses on ensuring the accuracy and precision of parenteral nutrition (PN) ascompared with the traditional and manual methods of compounding these solutions. Both the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists have published guidelines relative to the use of ACDs in the preparation of PNs. While not all pharmacies compound PN, many use some type of ACD in the preparation of sterile compounds.
ACDs used by pharmacists to prepare PN are designed to streamline historically labor-intensive, cumbersome and problem-pronemanual compounding methods. Typical PN solutions contain 16 ingredients, with some solutions containing asmanyas 24. To improve the safety and accuracy of PN, ACDs should incorporate many, if not all, of the following operating characteristics:
Repeatable fluid volume and delivery accuracy (macro and micro
nutrient volumes) within ±5%
Closed system with presterilized tube sets
Technology consistent with the USFDA’s Barcoding Final Rule to reduce
medication errors
User-definable component database based on these parameters:
- Ingredient name
- Product ID/NDC code
- Barcode ID-Source container volume
- Component families (e.g., amino acid, dextrose, etc.)
- Component specific gravity
- Compounding sequence algorithm
User-friendly graphical interface with touch-screen controls
Graphical warning system to report over-/under-deliveries
Activity audit trail
Network interface capability to minimize errors associated with
duplicative order entries
Barcode technology to identify source solutions and final containers
For more information on Baxa automated compounders, visit our Web site at www.baxa.com.
To view this article in its entirety, visit www.ijpc.com (Vol. 9 No. 1 January/February2005) or download a copy of the article from the Baxa Web site.
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