Browsing by Subject "quality assurance"

Pharmacy compounding involves the preparation of customized medications that are not commercially available for individual patients with specialized medical needs. The compounded preparations have many special features, such as the rapid/immediate need for the drug, the preparation of several pharmaceutical dosage forms, and the variation of batch sizes and manufacturing processes. Medicinal products prepared in hospital pharmacies may pose additional risks to patients compared to industrial products. These risks with limited evidence of quality, efficacy and microbiological purity can jeopardize patient safety. The aim of this study was to perform a product specific risk assessment of aseptically processed and terminally sterilized products belonging to the manufacturing range of the hospital pharmacy of Turku University Central Hospital. The study material contained 118 different products. The risk assessment was performed with the help of a risk matrix in which various quality and safety risks have been identified and assessed. The risk points obtained from the different areas of risks were multiplied together to obtain total risk points for each product. The products were qualitatively classified according to the total risk points into low-risk, medium-risk and high-risk products. All total parenteral nutrition (TPN) solutions of the study were classified as high-risk products. TPN solution prepared into a syringe without lipids and TPN solution prepared into an EVA bag without lipids had the highest risk points of the study (6561 points). Most of the eye drops (88 %) and patient controlled analgesia (PCA) pumps (68%) belonged to high-risk category. PCA pump containing morphine, clonidine, bupivacaine, ketamine and saline solution (1944 points) and autologous serum eye drops (1296 points) had the highest risk points of these product types. 60 percent of intraocular injections and half of pain products prepared into syringes were scored as high-risk products. Intravitreal bevacizumab had the highest risk points of intraocular injections (972 points). Medium-risk products were mainly different infusions. Infusions containing defibrotide, oxytocin and onasemnogene abeparvovec had the highest risk points in the medium-risk category. Liquid solutions and patient controlled analgesia (PCA) pumps were the second largest group in this category. All products used in allergy testing, all ointments and all inhalation solutions were in the low-risk category. The risk matrix used in the study can be used to identify high-risk compounded preparations in hospital pharmacies. Risk assessment enables targeting quality assurance more effectively to high-risk products. Risk assessment can be used to manage various risks in pharmaceutical compounding and reduce harm to patients. The results obtained in the study cannot be directly generalized to other hospital pharmacies because the products, manufacturing processes and the amounts of different products prepared vary among hospital pharmacies.