EH&E to present results of analysis of hospital pharmacy environmental monitoring data at ASHP Summer Meeting
ASHP Summer Meeting
June 11, 2019
Boston, MA
EH&E analyzed over two years of hospital pharmacy environmental monitoring data and will share the results in two poster sessions at the ASHP Summer Meeting. To learn more about the findings visit our team during the poster session on Tuesday, June 11th!
- Erin Higgins, MS, CIH, CSP
- Bryan Connors, MS, CIH, HEM
- David MacIntosh, ScD, CIH
- Michael Sellitto, MS
- Kerstin Catland, BS
Administrative and Behavioral Interventions of Compounding Pharmacy Technicians Reduce Microbiological Contamination of Biosafety Cabinets
An analysis of two and half years of environmental monitoring data revealed that administrative and behavior interventions were associated with a significant reduction in total biologicals, surface bacteria, surface fungi and airborne bacteria. The environmental monitoring was conducted in accordance with USP 797 and 800 in nine biosafety cabinets in five hospital sterile compounding pharmacies. Administrative and behavior interventions included enhanced garbing and hygiene practices.
A Reduction of Biological Contamination in BSCs May Reduce the Risk of Contaminated Compounded Sterile Products and Intravenous Infections
The findings of a second analysis may inform strategies for understanding contamination profiles of biosafety cabinets, which then may be used to implement programs to reduce risk. A key finding in this data set is that ISO classified buffer rooms were found to be more protective against contamination compared to SCAs. This supports regulations restricting drugs compounded in SCAs to shorter beyond use dates. Additionally, it underscores the importance of maintaining secondary engineering controls within their performance targets since performance may influence contamination rates of associated BSCs.