How to Prevent Compounding Tragedies From Pharmacist-Compounded Medications

There have been a number of tragedies due to the inaccurate preparations of medications. These events have placed pharmacy compounding in the limelight. Patients want answers. The question is how to prevent compounding tragedies from pharmacist-compounded medications?

"When done according to "best practices" and following the current rules, this practice meets patient needs that cannot be met in any other way, and therefore it is necessary." -Fred M. Eckel, RPh, MS, Should Pharmacists Be Able to Compound?

While the first thought would be to create a training program where one could become certified in compounding, this has many drawbacks. Questions begin to arise like who is capable of performing compounding, do they need to be certified, and more.

Should this be the Pharmacy Compounding Accreditation Board's problem? This too is a double-edged sword. The cost to allow the PCAB to solve this problem would drop small to medium-sized business due to limited capital.

The answer to this question is interlaced, but there are steps that you can take now. The best way to prevent compounding tragedies from pharmacist-compounded medications is to use proper conduct which means using the most accurate technology available like the DRX-3.

Our digital scales have many pill counting features, but specific to compounding they include a filling meter, remaining to fill, ingredient labeling, recipe archiving, recipe printing and onscreen instructions. The DRX-3 has a rich history in the pharmacy industry. It has been widely used by educational pharmacy programs and is known as the "teaching scale." Please, feel free to contact us about our scales which are NTEP certified and meet all pharmacy state board requirements.