Pharmacy Purchasing & Products is pleased to present the results of the 2012 USP <797> Compliance Study conducted by CriticalPoint, LLC. Building on the significant success of last year’s study, the 2012 study results serve as a clear, robust benchmarking tool to identify and gauge the progress of sterile compounding practices in hospital pharmacies. Once again, this study is the largest and most comprehensive study of USP <797> compliance ever undertaken in the United States. We are happy to provide the results, which can be found on page 4 of this month’s supplement on Cleanrooms and Compounding. 

Of the many interesting findings that emerged from this year’s study, one that particularly caught our eye is the superior degree of compliance achieved by those facilities that participated in this USP <797> Compliance Study in both 2011 and 2012. Taking into account the entire study population, there is a 9% difference between facilities that participated in both years’ studies (83.3% compliance), compared with those that only participated in this year’s study (74.3% compliance). 



Although these numbers are compelling and speak directly to the benefits realized through benchmarking and gap analysis, they also show that further improvement is still needed. By working together and taking advantage of practitioner-sourced information gained through participation in studies such as the 2012 USP <797> Compliance Study, or in any of the patient safety and best-practices surveys conducted by PP&P, we can continue to help the practice of institutional pharmacy in striving for the very best in patient care.

All the best,

R. Mitchell Halvorsen
Publisher

P.S. PP&P would like to congratulate the winner of our recent Generics Survey—Holly Justice, PharmD! Holly is the pharmacy director at Select Specialty Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. As the randomly selected winner from all named participants in this survey, Holly received a 8GB Apple iPod touch!