Pharmacy Purchasing & Products Magazine

Budgeting & Renovation

April 2020 : State of Pharmacy Compounding - Vol.17 No. 4 - Page #8

Pharmacy renovations are occurring at a vigorous pace as USP compliance drives both budgeting and renovation activity in the pharmacy. Despite the intense pace of renovations underway, the path to budget approval is often quite challenging. Pharmacy must be well prepared to demonstrate the need for upgrades to administration in order to receive funding support. The pace of construction is unlikely to abate soon as most facilities currently operating in older compounding complexes plan to upgrade their facilities within the year. It is notable that a majority of pharmacies are taking advantage of cleanroom upgrades to simultaneously upgrade the entire pharmacy.

Bonus Benchmarking Data

To see the average cost of renovations by hospital size, scroll down to the bottom of the page.

The updates from USP spurred a surge in the number of facilities investing in pharmacy renovations this year. Just over half of all facilities (51%) are now operating in a newly renovated pharmacy, up from 36% last year.

The process for getting budget approval for pharmacy renovations continues to be challenging for most facilities; just 12% found budget approval to be easy. Pharmacy must begin the process well prepared to demonstrate the regulatory requirements driving the need for pharmacy upgrades.

Larger facilities remain more likely to have completed a pharmacy renovation; however, facilities with fewer than 200 beds outpaced their larger counterparts in taking on new renovations this year by a 3:1 margin.

Renovations typically encompass the entire pharmacy; 61% of renovations that occurred over the past 5 years have included the cleanroom and other pharmacy area improvements as well.

Among those facilities with cleanrooms that are at least 5 years old, most pharmacies (66%) are planning an upcoming renovation of their compounding complex to ensure USP compliance. Installation rates will be similar across facilities of all sizes.

The pace of cleanroom renovations will be brisk; 74% of planned renovations are scheduled to occur this year.

Renovation expenditures are a factor of facility size and compounding volume. The smallest facilities typically spend up to $500,000 on their pharmacy renovations, while the largest facilities tend to spend up to, and in some cases well over, $5 million.