MythBusters: Sterile Compounding Edition

Don’t believe everything that you see, hear, or read. Sterile compounding myths persist because people adopt a “that’s the way we always do it” attitude. Dan Kyes, CPhT, CSPT, BCSCPT, New England Life Care, and Abby Roth, CMQ/OE, Pure Microbiology dispelled a variety of common myths in home infusion compounding at NHIA 2024.

Myth: The designated person can allow staff to wear jewelry as long as it can be covered.
Truth: Only exposed jewelry that cannot be removed may be covered. The facility’s SOPs can permit accommodations for things like permanent jewelry, medical alert bracelets, and dermal piercings, but should consider including control measures, such as additional garb sampling.

Myth: Initial gloved fingertip testing (GFT) should be collected in the primary engineering control (PEC).
Truth: GFT should be conducted where gloves are donned. An operator should never make it to the PEC without gloves on.

Myth: Sterile 70% IPA is a cleaning agent.
Truth: Sterile 70% IPA is a sanitizer and residue remover. It requires a 5-minute dwell time to be used as a cleaning agent but will evaporate too quickly.

Myth: The viable air sampler should always be placed under a HEPA filter to ensure that the filter is working correctly.
Truth: The purpose of viable sampling is to assess microbial control in the clean room, not to test if the HEPA filters work—that’s what the engineering certification is for. Chose sample locations based on risk to compounded sterile product and what can be learned about the environment. Don’t be afraid of the results; the data is vital information for guiding practices to maintain environmental control.