Evaluation of a hazardous drug surface contamination surveillance program in a large community hospital

Risks of occupational exposures to hazardous drugs (HDs) have been documented and identified as needing to be monitored. To decrease potential exposures in a community hospital, this project evaluated the impact of implementing a hazardous drug wipe sampling technology (BD HD Check system; BD, Franklin Lakes, NJ) and accompanying environmental procedures, risk level scoring assessment, and recordkeeping tools on identifying HD surface contamination.

The 16-week evaluation focused on HD wipe sampling of locations (25 sites) within a cleanroom suite and infusion areas at the largest hospital of a multihospital community health system. Sites were determined through a risk stratification assessment to which areas were given a high, medium, or low-risk category to determine frequency of testing. HD wipe samples were tested for methotrexate, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) were developed to address testing, decontamination, and retesting procedures.

A total of 238 samples were collected over 16 weeks across 25 sample sites. Fifteen of 25 sites resulted in at least 1 positive, totaling 37 initially positive results. Following initial positives, 92.5% of sites successfully tested negative following decontamination. Three sites that remained positive after decontamination underwent a corrective and preventative action (CAPA) analysis and were negative after a second round of decontamination.

Sampling led to reduction in contamination and more transparency in HD monitoring. The HD wipe sampling technology (BD HD Check system) and accompanying procedures were shown to be helpful in establishing and refining SOPs for HD preparation, cleaning/decontamination, and wipe sampling.