Offsite intravenous admixture center shared by health-system facilities

The creation of an offsite i.v. admixture center shared by four affiliated health care facilities is described. The i.v. admixture center was developed to consolidate the admixture services of four Carilion Health System (Roanoke, Virginia)-affiliated facilities: Roanoke Memorial Hospital (RMH), RMH's Cancer and Rehabilitation Center, Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley (CHRV), and the Roanoke Memorial Home Health Parenteral Therapy Program. The proposed advantages of a shared i.v. admixture service included providing full i.v. services for CHRV, increasing the ability to prepare home i.v. admixtures on a daily basis, increasing space for preparing i.v. admixtures, avoiding adding admixture staff members at any of the facilities, reducing supply duplication and admixture waste, and standardizing and improving quality. The Carilion Admixture Center was built in Carilion's materials management building at a total cost for construction and new equipment of $80,000; it opened in April 1992. The facility is responsible for providing piggyback admixtures, premixed piggyback solutions, injectable antineoplastic agents, total parenteral nutrient solutions, prefilled syringes for pediatric patients, large-volume solutions containing additives, and all admixtures required for the home health care patients. The facility was certified as a Class 20,000 environment. Start-up problems included computer glitches and a heavier-than-anticipated workload during the first year of operation. Nearly 700,000 i.v. admixtures were compounded at the center between October 1992 and September 1994. There were 95 reports of missing doses during the day shift at RMH between November 1992 and January 1993; only 6% were due to errors at the admixture center. The estimated total cost avoidance for salaries, benefits, and nonbillable supplies for October 1992 through September 1994 was $437,000. Intravenous admixture services provided by three hospital facilities and one home health agency were successfully consolidated into one shared offsite center.