Compounding Corner Pharmacy: Vancomycin Eye Drops
Most people think that a pharmacist is a pharmacist. They are all trained to do the same thing. In fact, the Board of Pharmacy Specialists currently certifies 12 different specialties of practice.
Compounded Sterile Preparations Pharmacy will join the official specialties certified by the board beginning in 2019. Pharmacists who currently practice compounding have required specific training in the practice of compounding.
An order for vancomycin eye drops requires a compounding pharmacist to prepare them. This article will help you understand and ensure that you receive a safe and effective product.
What Does Drug Compounding Mean?
Compounding creates personalized medicine. This requires creativity and science to provide solutions to medication delivery problems.
They can add special flavorings, unique dosage forms, and innovative ways to take medicines. Compounding can help with:
- Allergies to mass-produced medicine filler ingredients such as casein, gluten, dyes, and more
- Patients not taking medications as prescribed due to unpleasant side effects or no improvement in their medical problem
- Needing custom medication strengths or dosage forms such as creams or suppositories
- Making drugs that are not mass-produced medications sold by pharmaceutical companies
Compounding changes and even saves lives. These pharmacists help solve some of healthcare’s most challenging dilemmas.
What Is the Procedure for Compounding Sterile Products?
The procedure for creating a compounded product requires many critical steps:
Aseptic technique. This involves all personnel following proper processes and procedures to ensure patient safety. It includes specific procedures for:
- handwashing
- Putting on gloves, gowns, caps, masks, and goggles
- Cleaning the work areas
- Identification of critical sites and causes of contamination
High risk compounded sterile products, such as vancomycin eye drops, may use non-sterile components. The components become compounded in a sterile environment. Quality assurance processes ensure safe compounding environments, procedures, and personnel involved in the process.
The sterilization techniques and sterility testing requirements involved, complex procedures.
Why Is a Sterile Environment So Important?
Compounding medications requires an absolute sterile environment. Sterile compounding involves the most critical aspect of pharmaceutical compounding.
The pharmacist must follow Risk Level III compounding procedures. This is the highest risk level for sterile medications available. If the proper sterile technique isn’t maintained at all times, the medication can become contaminated with bacteria or fungus.
Products that need preparation in a sterile environment include:
- Eyedrops
- Injections
- inhalations
Preparation includes the correct ingredients, technique, supplies, and facility. This ensures that the patient gets the right medication with sterile preparation.
What Are Vancomycin Eye Drops Used For?
Vancomycin eye drops treat Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), penicillin-resistant Streptococci, and fungal infections in the eye.
Studies show that the best way to administer vancomycin eye drops is to first close your eye. Then, without touching the bottle to your eye, put the number of drops order into the inside corner of your eye. Then blink so the eye drops will spread across your eye.
What Are Potential Side Effects?
All medications have possible side effects. These may include:
- A stinging feeling when inserting the eye drops
- Itching
- Hives
- Redness
- Swelling
Be sure to tell your doctor about all the medications you take. Also, tell them if you have a corn allergy. Some of the preparations contain corn.
If you experience these problems or have any other concerns, call your doctor immediately.
Questions to Ask the Pharmacist and Doctor
Having a list of questions helps you to leave with all the answers you need. This ensures that you fully understand how the treatment works and what you can expect. Here are some questions for your doctor to get you started:
- When should treatment be started?
- How long will the treatment last?
- What are the benefits of this treatment?
- How successful has this treatment been for other patients?
- What are the risks of this treatment?
- What are the possible side effects?
- Should I avoid any foods, drugs, or activities while using this medication?
- What should I do if I miss a dose of the medication?
- Are there other treatments that I could take instead?
- How often should follow-up appointments be scheduled?
- Is driving permitted?
Questions for Pharmacists:
- Are you accredited to do compounding for my specific prescription?
- What risk levels do you follow to ensure a sterile environment when compounding?
- When does this medication expire?
- Where should I store this medication? At room temperature or in the refrigerator?
Having more knowledge about your treatment allows you to be an active participant in your care. You will also know when you need to call your doctor or pharmacist about concerns.
Precautions to Take When Using Eye Drops
- Wash hands before inserting eye drops
- Follow the specific directions on how to put the drops in the eye
- Be sure to use the eye drops at the times ordered by your physician
- Be sure to use the eye drops for the number of days ordered by your physician
- Don’t share these eye drops with anyone else
- Don’t let the tip of the eye drop touch anything
- Don’t put eye drops in ears
- Don’t move the eye drops to another container
Following these instructions will help your infection clear quicker. Remember, you already have one infection. You don’t want to introduce another infection by not following these instructions.
Do You Need to Find a Compounding Pharmacy?
Our pharmacy offers a variety of compounded eye drop medications including vancomycin eye drops. We prepare them according to Risk Level III preparations.
Your eyesight is very important to us. That is why we want to help you make sure that you find a compounding pharmacy with validated processes ensuring extensive potency and sterility.
We don’t teach students. Thus, only the licensed and certified pharmacist will be in the compounding room.
Contact us today. We are happy to answer questions about compounding medications. We want to make sure that you receive the right potency of medicine and that it is safe for you.