Sterile Basics: Intravenous Admixture Compounding, Part 1: Introduction and Overview of the General Guidelines for an Intravenous Admixture Compounding Program, and Compounding Personnel Considerations.

Intravenous admixture compounding is a common practice in most hospitals throughout the world, regardless of the country. Due to the complexity in compounding intravenous medications, there is a high potential for error, and since intravenous medications must be compounded in an aseptic environment, this poses additional issues for the compounder. Part 1 of this series of articles provides an introduction, an overview, and compounding personnel considerations of this topic. The remaining parts of this series will cover parenteral vehicle considerations; preparation procedures; physicochemical considerations; handling potential incompatibilities; endotoxin considerations; and quality control of intravenous admixtures. This introductory article in this overall series on intravenous admixture preparation presents issues related to their compounding and to medication error prevention.