Vetnews | Junie 2024 22 « BACK TO CONTENTS A Robust Quality System Is Essential for Compounded Veterinary Medicines In veterinary medicine, selecting the right pharmacy to compound necessary medications is crucial to provide the best care for animal patients. Understanding the importance of an independent quality system can assist in making this selection. Quality in this context refers to the rigorous standards and procedures a pharmacy follows to ensure that medications are safe, effective, and reliable for veterinary use. A quality management system further extends to include factors such as exceptional customer service, robust business continuity, and other critical components. Quality cannot only be directly tested, yet it forms an important part of the processes and structure of a pharmacy. While testing and quality checks, known as Quality Control, are vital aspects of quality systems, they only represent a component of the system that encompasses much more. A quality system must evaluate the risk of compounded medicine to both patients and the public. For instance, a one-time extemporaneous compound for an individual non-food-producing animal may pose a lower risk than a veterinary medicine prepared for a herd of cattle. However, both pharmacists and veterinarians bear equal responsibility for the professional services provided. Thus, veterinarians need to determine who they trust to prepare compounded veterinary medicine for their practices.
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