Impact of a systematic framework for anticipatory compounding on medication waste reduction in a mid-size community hospital.

Purpose: In current hospital pharmacy practice, the need to compound medications ahead of patient orders often results in an increase in medication waste. The purpose of this study was to implement a strategic approach for anticipatory sterile compounding and evaluate its effect on the reduction of expired medication waste.

Methods: This was a pre-/post-intervention quasi-experimental study with 3 weeks of data collection for both arms and a 1-week washout period to implement process changes.

A hospital within a hospital: An innovative pharmacy model to improve the continuum of care.

Purpose: To describe the implementation of a contracted pharmacy service model for a co-located long-term acute care hospital (LTAC).

Summary: Historically, most LTACs have been free-standing healthcare facilities, but there is an increased trend towards the co-located LTAC ("hospital within a hospital") model. Co-located LTACs represent a solution for the management of patient throughput within a health system, with optimized bed capacity at the host hospital, increased revenue under a prospective payment system, and reduced readmission rates.