Pharmacy Compounding Made Easier With the Right Features
After a recent fungal meningitis outbreak resulting from contaminated steroids shipped by the New England Compounding Center (NECC), pharmacy compounding has been getting quite a bit of attention from both the general public and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Compounding pharmacies create medicines tailored for specific patients.
As a result of the NECC disaster, 48 people are dead and hundreds more are in treatment. As this article explains, FDA inspectors raided the NECC in September and found major violations, including visible black fungus in drug vials. States are staring to take notice and are conducting their own investigations. Massachusetts, for instance, recently conducted 40 unannounced inspections of compounding pharmacies, and only four of the pharmacies passed. At the federal level, the FDA is reportedly very focused on investigating compounding pharmacies in several states, particularly those considered at “high risk” for microbiological contamination.
Although some pharmacies escaped oversight and acted in a highly unethical and unsafe manner, that doesn’t mean compounding itself is bad or dangerous. When the right tools are used and procedures are followed correctly, compounding is an important pharmaceutical practice that helps patients every day.
Many of our pill counters have useful compounding features that help ensure accuracy. The recipe making feature totals the ingredients so you can print a detailed receipt with weight of each ingredient, total weight of the recipe and the date and time. Also the weights of each ingredient can be stored in the scale’s memory for later use.
The filling meter and remaining to fill features are easy to use and can help make sure you get the proper pill count without overfilling. The onscreen instructions make the entire process simpler, which is especially helpful any time you have new pharmacists that need to be trained.
Contact us to learn more about our entire line of pill counters and pharmacy scales, and all the features that make filling prescriptions fast, easy and accurate.
