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JCAHO won't let pharmacy off easy with goals

Pharmacy Regulation Resource, September 8, 2004

Bar coding and restricting IV preparation to the pharmacy didn't make the final 2005 National Patient Safety Goals, but don't expect them to go away for good.

Despite being left off the final goals list, industry experts still expect hospitals will need to focus on patient-identification technology and IV preparation. Other technologies, including radio frequency identification (RFID), may replace bar coding in the future, and the JCAHO will still survey for compliance with U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) Chapter 797, which regulates compounding sterile preparations.

Keep an eye on bar coding
Bar coding was the most controversial of the proposed goals. If it passed, the JCAHO would have required hospitals to have bar-coding systems in place to identify patients by January 1, 2007.

The Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), a technology trade group based in Chicago, took an informal Web survey of its members. Only 28% thought bar coding was feasible by 2007, said Ned Simpson, FHIMSS, a HIMSS fellow and principal for global health solutions with Computer Sciences Corp. in Ann Arbor, MI, during the Hospital Pharmacy and Supply Chain Summit in Washington, DC, in July.

Comply with Chapter 797 instead
Even though the JCAHO will not restrict IV preparation to the pharmacy in the new goals, it will survey for compliance with USP 797, which outlines equipment and precautions required-including clean rooms for compounding certain sterile preparations. Clean rooms have special air filters and equipment to create a sterile environment to compound medications.

The JCAHO began surveying for conformity with USP 797 and the corresponding JCAHO standards July 1. The JCAHO will consider organizations compliant for 2004 if they have plans in place to meet the USP requirements.

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