Can Hazardous Drug tablets be crushed at nurses stations or just in the pharmacy?

This question has many different factors to consider which should be determined by pharmacists at each hospital. There are guidelines about compounding various levels of hazardous drugs contained in USP Chapters <800> and <795>.

 

Our RxCrush customers follow their own policies which often depends on the equipment and layout of pharmacists in hospitals. Drugs without a NIOSH Hazardous Drug classification can be compounded with RxCrush on the hospital floor and RxCrush contains this process better than any other process because the RxCrush Pill Pouch contains the solid medications and fluids during preparation.

 

NIOSH Level 1, 2 and 3 drugs require more care. There is a list compiled by NIOSH for the 3 levels of hazardous drugs. The list can be found here: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2010-167/pdfs/2010-167.pdf It is the drugs on this list that should be approved by pharmacists.

USP<800> and <795> mandates as much protection should be adopted in work areas as possible given the resources of the hospital.

 

RxCrush makes the containers and the crusher for pill crushing but don't have the scope to determine crushing protocol.

Back to blog

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.