PharMEDium Announces Rollout of a New Operating Room Anesthesia Drug Custom Compounding...

PharMEDium Announces Rollout of a New Operating Room Anesthesia Drug Custom
Compounding Service
Aligns With National Quality/Patient Safety Initiatives

LAKE FOREST, Ill. and ANAHEIM, Calif., March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- PharMEDium
Services, LLC, the leading provider of outsourced hospital pharmacy I.V.
compounded solutions, today announced the rollout of a new service offering of
commonly compounded, anesthesia drug syringe preparations that are tied to a
host of national quality and patient safety initiatives intended to improve
patient care.
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The rollout was announced at company headquarters and at the Association
of PeriOperative Registered Nurses annual Congress in Anaheim.
The initial custom compounding service covers five drug classes -
antibiotics (including Cefazolin), sedatives, neuromuscular blockade agents,
narcotics, and vasopressors, said Rich Kruzynski, R.Ph, PharMEDium President.
Throughout 2008, the service will expand to cover additional requested custom,
compounded preparations commonly prescribed for use in the OR, Kruzynski
added.
The new custom OR compounded preparation service offers a host of features
designed to enhance safety and delivery of OR medications improving patient
care. Specifically, the copyrighted, patent pending service labels were
designed based on the input of industry experts.
Each custom service label is color-coded by drug class and dual-banded
with the compounded drug preparation name, enabling physicians to see the drug
name on each preparation from various angles and to reduce the potential for
an error with high-alert medications. The use of color coding by drug class,
another major feature, aligns with recommendations of the American Society for
Testing and Materials (ASTM), and is endorsed by the American Society of
Anesthesiologists (ASA). This feature may improve clinicians' recognition of
syringe medication service labels in emergency situations, Kruzynski said.
The labeling features integrated into the custom OR compounding service
have been developed as a result of extensive market research conducted
directly with anesthesiologists and conforms to the standards of ASTM and the
Joint Commission. The Joint Commission's 2007-08 Patient Safety Goal 3d
recommends that all medications and solutions used in the perioperative
environment be properly labeled. PharMEDium ASTM color coding for syringe
preparations by drug class (orange for sedatives, violet for vasopressors,
blue for narcotics, etc.) is intended to enhance drug recognition in emergency
situations in the OR.
"An initiative like the new OR custom Anesthesia Drug Compounding Service
can support hospitals' efforts to improve on delivery of patient care in light
of the new Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services' pay-for-performance
initiatives. This is another major element of PharMEDium's industry-leading
expertise and a continuation of our goal to set the industry standard. Our
objective is to continue to provide innovative solutions to clinicians and
pharmacists to facilitate improved patient safety providing the highest
quality of patient care, with the highest quality preparation process and
comprehensive labeling," said PharMEDium Chairman and CEO David Jonas.
About PharMEDium Services, LLC
For more than 15 years, PharMEDium has been the leading provider of
outsourced compounding services. In that time, PharMEDium has grown into a
nationwide network of state licensed and federally registered compounding
centers providing trusted solutions to more than 1,800 hospitals throughout
the United States. Managed by licensed pharmacists and staffed by certified
technicians, the company complies with all applicable state laws and FDA
regulations, including USP Chapter < 797 >, as well as DEA and cGMP
Requirements.
SOURCE PharMEDium Services, LLC

Amy Langan, Director of Marketing of PharMEDium, +1-847-457-2327,
info@pharmedium.com, or Media Inquiries: Jon Ross, Ross Consulting &
Communications, +1-773-271-0677, jross1chi@prodigy.net