10 Reasons to Compound

Top 10 Reasons why Pharmacists Compound

There are a myriad of reasons why pharmacists compound, or customise medication. The following are just 10 reasons why pharmacists have said they have incorporated compounding into their daily practices:

1. A career path leading to compounding is rewarding to a pharmacist in many ways: professionally, personally, creatively and financially. As a compounder, a pharmacist can expect to hear daily stories about how compounded medications have dramatically improved a patient's life.
   
   
2. Pharmacists are the only healthcare professionals possessing the training, knowledge and skill required to compound and prepare medications to meet a patient's unique needs. The responsibility to compound safe, effective prescriptions for patients who require special care is fundamental to the pharmacy profession.
   
   
3. Compounding allows pharmacists to provide pharmaceutical care services for each patient.
   
   
4. Customised medications can fill specific needs often not met by commercially available medications. Compounding provides doctors with expanded treatment options by providing dosage form and dose flexibility.
   
   
5. Compounding pharmacists enjoy an increased communication level between themselves, patients and practitioners.
   
   
6. Compounding pharmacists have the opportunity to work with a variety of practice specialties, such as hospice, paediatrics, pain management, and obstetrics/gynaecology, which in turn broadens the scope of their practices and creates other opportunities to provide other pharmacist care services.
   
   
7. By increasing the focus on patient care and providing patients with customised prescriptions, compounding pharmacists can help to improve one of the healthcare profession's greatest challenges patient compliance.
   
   
8. Compounding pharmacists believe that medical practitioners from a variety of healthcare disciplines and practice areas respect and depend upon them because they have become the "problem solver" for doctors and patients. Many compounders now serve on medical inter-disciplinary teams, working alongside doctors and nurses to serve the patient.
   
   
9. Compounding pharmacists have ranked their career satisfaction and overall job satisfaction significantly higher than non-compounders, citing the ability to make use of their education and skills, flexibility of schedules and the quality of professional encounters with coworkers and other healthcare practitioners.
   
   
10. Today's compounding pharmacists have access to sophisticated equipment such as electronic balances; cleanrooms; safety equipment and procedures; training and education; testing labs for quality assurance; and technical resources, allowing them to provide patients with quality products that meet their specific requirements.

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