Extemporaneous Compounding: A Possible Trigger Tool to Detect Potential Health Incidents

Extemporaneous compounding (EC) involves the preparation of a therapeutic product for specific patient need. However, there is a potential relationship between this procedure and the occurrence of health incidents (HI). The use of trigger tools increases HI identification.

This study assessed the performance of EC as a trigger to detect potential health incidents arising from this procedure.

A one-month observational and cross-sectional study was performed in internal medicine ward and intensive care unit of medium-sized hospital. Data collection was carried out in 5 stages: all triggered patients with dysphagia or enteral feeding tube with prescription of EC were included; EC executed in prescribed standardized drugs was observed; the procedure was compared with the hospital guide and scientific literature; HI monitoring and their evaluation using WHO and NCC MERP algorithms; a search for pharmaceutical alternatives (PA) that would avoid the observed EC.

197 patients were recruited. Almost half of them were triggered by EC from 84 standardized drugs. 48 patients met the inclusion criteria. 28 adverse drug reactions, 01 therapeutic ineffectiveness, and 29 medication errors were identified. EC as a trigger tool showed a PPV value of 0.38. Only 24 drugs have PA available in the market, which could avoid one third of all observed EC.

It was possible to detect potentially HI in one of two patients with enteral feeding tubes using EC as a trigger tool. The use of EC as a trigger tool contributes to identifying potential HI arising from drugs, which have not gotten pharmaceutical alternatives to be administered via enteral feeding tube.