Patient Safety Standards

Pharmacy Information

USP released the second edition of the USP Pharmacists' Pharmacopeia in spring 2008. With this dedicated pharmacy reference, USP renews its commitment to serving the practicing and academic pharmacy communities through information that will ultimately help to deliver the best pharmaceutical care to patients. USP's evolving portfolio of pharmacy products and services includes educational programs and peer-reviewed articles. USP also seeks to actively involve the pharmacy community in the continuous development and revision of official monographs and guidelines for compounding, packaging, storage, and other aspects of pharmacy practice.

Expert Committees

Compounding Pharmacy

Under the leadership of Dr. Loyd Allen, the 10 member Expert Committee has established a new General Chapter on Quality Assurance in Pharmaceutical Compounding. They developed new compounding monographs for inclusion in USP31-NF26 and continue drafting proposed revisions to General Chapters 795 and 1075.

Nomenclature

The Nomenclature Expert Committee is composed of 21 members, several of whom are the Chairs of other Expert Committees. Dr. Thomas Reinders leads this Committee in its role of establishing names for drug monographs. The committee routinely holds discussions with the FDA, Expert Committee Chairs, and USP staff to establish consistency in nomenclature and to develop naming policies. Through the Nomenclature Expert Committee, USP develops content for the USP Dictionary of USAN and International Drug Names and participates in the bi-annual meetings of the United States Adopted Name Council.

Safe Medication Use

This committee's 18 members, under the leadership of Dr. Michael Murray, have concentrated on projects that include developing a General Chapter on Physical Environments that Promote Safe Medication Use, and standardization of data elements for computerized prescriber order entry and IV concentrations. The Committee has reviewed the literature on the effectiveness of "Tall Man Lettering" in preventing similar drug name mix-ups and will provide recommendations to the Nomenclature Expert Committee for action. An Advisory Panel was instituted to evaluate medication error data from USP's national databases of adverse events in an effort of assist the Committee in targeting areas for improvement in the medication use process.

Sterile Compounding

The 12 members of the Sterile Compounding Expert Committee, under the direction of Dr. David Newton, have completed the revision of General Chapter <797> Pharmaceutical Compounding-Sterile Preparations which became official June 1, 2008. The committee is now focusing their efforts in creating FAQs for General Chapter <797> and in establishing new sterile compounding monographs for inclusion in USP–NF and the Pharmacists' Pharmacopeia.