Cross Contamination is a Pharmacist's Invisible Threat to Public Health

It is hard to imagine in the field of pharmceudicals and health care that cross contamination could even be an issue.  Health care professionals learn early on that bacteria, viruses, and other pathogen account for the majority of illnesses.  Yet what is startling is how laxidaisical many continue to be in the industry. Something as simple as covering one's mouth when they cough or sneeze, using their sleeve instead of their hand would reduce transmission of infection significantly.  Not to mention basic hand washing habits, which studies have shown can reduce viruses and respiratory infections by nearly 45%.

Pharmacies are far from sterile environments, with so many customers only coming to the pharmacy to fill a prescription for an illness such as Strep or Influenza, yet they often use the same pens, credit card swipers, and pass money on to pharmacists that have been in infected areas.  With a highly contagious virus such as the norovirus, the chances of crosscontamination are even higher, especially since conventional hand sanitizers do not kill the virus.  Sometimes people can often get careless and wind up doing more harm than good, even from professionals who should be on top of things when it comes to epidemiology.

So when facing the concern that some people needing prescription drugs may already have a compromised immune system, wouldn't it make sense to limit contagion even more? When you can accurately weigh your medications to distribute them effectively, you are doing just this.  Exposure to the elements through manual counting and sorting not only damages some tablets and capsules, but exposes them to airborn diseases which could dramatically affect the health of someone being treated for something else entirely.  Keeping work areas pathogen free, or at the very least limiting exposure of one germ or virus as much as one can, will affect the overall well-being of customers and pharmacy staffers alike.

And after all, isn't that why we are in the business anyway?  To make life better for people through the power of medicine?  Contact us to see how our scales can do this today.