Rockwell Compounding Laboratories, Inc, located in Rye, New York, specializes in pharmaceutical compounding for organizations such as hospitals, clinics, medical schools, and manufacturers. Our in-house laboratory engages in drug compounding, coding, placebo identification, formulation, dosage administration, stability testing, sampling and sample preparation, transfer and delivery systems, packaging and labeling.

The Challenges   
We have two cleanrooms onsite, attached by a glove and gown room, where our staff engages in compounding pharmacy practices, specializing in sterile products. We compound primarily patient-specific doses but also work with hospitals in compounding for clinical trials.

One of the biggest challenges we face is keeping our cleanrooms in compliance with USP <797> standards. We are certified twice a year to ensure that all the hoods and filtration units are operating properly. In addition, our certifier takes particle air counts so it is absolutely vital that we have cleaning products that we can trust. We exclusively use ITW Texwipe products for all of our cleaning needs, including mops, sterile alcohol and wipes for cleaning the tabletops and the laminar flow hood.

The cleanroom is cleaned weekly, while the floors are cleaned daily, along with the sterile hoods and worktables, using ITW’s sterile alcohol and mops. Either a pharmacy technician or pharmacist does the cleaning. While the products are easy to use, we also include cleaning technique as part of our staff’s aseptic training, so they are well prepared.

Cost Effectiveness
The wipes are well sized and offer a large swipe area, which allows us to use fewer wipes in our cleaning process. In addition, the wet wipes are packaged in resealable, heavy-duty plastic that is easy to open and close. So we avoid the problem of dried out wipes. The wipes handle all of our cleaning chores very well and are trouble-free which is a key consideration for cleanroom products.

Conclusion
In tackling our cleaning challenges at Rockwell, we have found that the ITW cleaning products provide an easy-to-use and trouble-free solution for all of our cleaning needs. They are worry-free, durable, and most importantly help us to comply with USP <797> standards.

Steven Cosentino, PD, BS, RPh, is president of Rockwell Compounding Laboratories, Inc in Rye, New York.