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Weighing the option of purchasing a unit-dose packaging system for your hospital pharmacy versus outsourcing your packaging

Hospitals continually look for ways to reduce costs and improve efficiency, and unit-dose drug repackaging and barcoding remain an option to achieve that. While some hospital pharmacies have the resources to manage drug repackaging in-house, for others, the time, space, and labor requirements remain a constant challenge. As a result, many hospital pharmacies are opting to outsource their unit-dose repackaging, allowing them to free up staff time, space and significantly reduce costs. So which option is best for your pharmacy – investing in packaging equipment and packaging in-house or outsourcing to a third-party unit-dose repackager? 

Originally posted on April 05, 2018

Updated August 2, 2021 

While the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to medication shortages, the FDA acknowledges that drug shortages can occur almost any time, due to factors such as manufacturing delays, quality issues, or discontinuations. In fact, the FDA now offers a Drug Shortages Mobile App to receive notifications within selected therapeutic categories.

As a result of pandemic-related shortages, some hospitals and health systems have opted to establish a combination of in-house and outsourced unit-dose drug repackaging to ensure supply availability and to keep costs in check. Regardless of which approach a facility chooses, cross-contamination remains a vitally important consideration for every hospital's unit-dose repackaging strategy.

Unit-dose repackaging is here to stay. Whether your hospital or health system pharmacy packages in-house or outsources with a unit-dose repackaging company, there are always questions about how to best manage or streamline the process. With that in mind, Safecor Health has compiled the 10 most frequently asked questions our team receives about how to maximize efficiency, safety and costs with unit-dose repackaging.

Identifying the Problem and Facing the Challenge Head-On

In October 2006, the American Hospital Association invited key medical professionals together to discuss patient safety risks associated with enteral feeding systems. The challenge involved the problems with enteral misconnections and small-bore connectors.

Workforce shortages are nothing new to the pharmacy industry. In 2016, The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics projected a 12% increased demand for pharmacy technician jobs.

Expiration dating starts as early as the FDA application process. The FDA requires new drug applicants to submit drug stability testing data along with recommended expiration dates and storage conditions at the same time they apply for FDA approval.

In the ever-changing hospital pharmacy environment, regulatory bodies and industry organizations like the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), United States Pharmacopeia (USP) and Institute For Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) are making an effort to standardize guidelines for barcoding, unit-dose packaging and expiration dating. Clear standards of practice have shown reduced medication errors resulting in improved patient safety.

In its simplest form, unit-dose repackaging means placing every individual medication dose into its own package, labeled and bar-coded. The pharmacist must repackage a bulk shipment of drugs (for example, a bottle of 100 tablets) into 100 separate doses. Sound simple? Maybe, but think about everything that’s involved in that process.

Unit-dose medication packaging has been a standard practice for hospital pharmacies since the late 1960s. Since then, pharmaceutical manufacturers and wholesalers have consolidated, resulting in fewer unit-dose drugs being available to hospital pharmacies. This directly caused price increases on unit-dose products, frequent backorders and more limited options.

In today’s health care environment, it’s important to ensure that patients get the best care possible. This can include spending time with the patient to understand his or her needs. It also includes prescribing, dispensing and administering the right drug in the right dose at the right time.