Quality control of parenteral nutrition compounding: gravimetric and component verification control

Introduction: parenteral nutrition (PN) compounding is a process with a high probability of errors. Objective: to analyze PN compounding errors detected using a gravimetric control (GC) and a component verification control (CVC). Methods: a prospective analysis was carried out during a three-year period (January 2016 to December 2018). The MedicalOne Parenteral® software program was used to calculate the theoretical weight of each PN based on density and volume. Each elaborated PN was weighed to obtain the real weight. Gravimetric error (%) ((real weight - theoretical weight) x 100 / theoretical weight) was considered correct if within the ± 5 % interval. The CVC consisted of checking that the correct ingredients and volumes were added according to the PN order. Results: during the study period a total number of 28,761 PNs were checked out; 20,612 adult PNs (APN) were weighed and 124 were considered incorrect (0.60 %). Of the 1,203 non-neonatal pediatric PNs (NPPN), 15 (1.25 %) were incorrect, and of the 6,946 neonatal PNs (NPN), 164 (2.96 %) were incorrect. Regarding the CVC, 71 errors were detected in the APN (0.70 %), 6 (1.34 %) in the NPPN, and 5 (0.21 %) in the NPN group. The total number of errors included: adding more volume of one component [38 (46.34 %)], adding a wrong component [27 (32.93 %)], and absent volume of one component [17 (20.73 %)]. Conclusions: the quality control carried out allowed to detect errors during the preparation of PNs and prevented them from reaching the patient. More incorrect NPNs were detected through GC. The main error detected with CVC was adding more volume of a component.