Effects of a new sterile product preparation and delivery process on operational efficiency and cost

Abstract

The implementation of a new i.v. room batch process improved operational efficiency by reducing the production of waste and led to a substantial projected annual cost saving.

Maintaining comprehensive pharmacy services during a pandemic: Recommendations from a designated COVID-19 facility

“…Depending on the sterile compounding workflow and available resources and technology, increasing the batching frequency for nonpatient-specific doses of CSPs may be an option to minimize wastage and improve operational efficiency. 11,12 Candidates to consider include commonly used critical care medications (eg, vasopressors, sedatives, neuromuscular blocking agents) and antiinfective drugs. Resourcewise, it may not be possible for every medical team or service to have dedicated clinical pharmacy coverage; this highlights the importance of collaboratively discussing which targeted services (eg, antimicrobial stewardship, medication profile review, review of high-risk medications, therapeutic drug monitoring) can be feasibly delivered.…”

Medication Waste Reduction in Pediatric Pharmacy Batch Processes

“…Wastage rates in hospitals have been reported as between 16.6% and 28.7% dependent on the types of pharmaceuticals examined, type of hospital, and patient population served. [2][3][4][5][6] Much of this waste stems from batch preparation and scheduled delivery of non-urgent, patient-specific medication. Patient-specific medications make up a high proportion of doses produced by pediatric hospital pharmacies (estimated at 85% for the pharmacy studied) because of weight-based customization.…”

“…[2][3][4][5][6][7] Discontinuations result from clinical decisions to stop medication or alter dosage, frequency, administration route, or administration time. In addition, discontinuations occur from patient discharges that were uncertain at the time of medication order placement.…”

“…8 This has triggered several hospital pharmacies (pediatric and adult) to initiate efforts to decrease waste, with reductions spanning from 31% to 85%, totaling $60,000 to $426,244 in annual cost savings. [2][3][4][5][6] Many of these interventions focused solely on intravenous medications, not accounting for other types. They were also multifaceted, improving several aspects of hospital-based pharmacy services.…”

Evaluation of i.v. medication waste

“…Many avenues have been explored, including enhanced formulary management, use of optimal vial sizes and multidose vials, and decreased waste of resources. [1][2][3] When considering a drug budget, there is obvious value to tracking and organizing information on discarded medications and creating new processes for waste minimization. Analyzing data to quantify the waste of drug products can be useful for many purposes, such as costcontainment program implementation, distribution process analysis, formulary alternative identification, and wholesaler contract evaluation.…”