H
er heart sank when news
first broke of the fungal
meningitis outbreak traced
to tainted steroids pre-
pared by a compounding pharmacy. "What if our vials
were contaminated?" Melissa Hermanson, RN, CASC, the clinical
administrator of the Ambulatory Care Center in Vineland, N.J., remem-
bers thinking.
"It was tense. You think back over all of the patients — all of their
faces — and pray that everything is going to be okay," she says of the
50 or so patients who receive routine pain management injections
each week. "Patient welfare is always a No. 1 concern, especially
when we're injecting these drugs into spinal columns."
Staff researched the lot numbers of each vial of steroids they'd
8 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 7
7 Questions to Ask Your Compounding Lab
• CONVENIENCE OF COMPOUNDING Ready-to-use compounded combination dilating drops eliminate the need to administer multiple eye drops before cataract surgery.
Does your lab take medication safety as seriously as you do?
Diane Stopyra
Contributing Editor
