How to choose pharmacy compounding software: a buyer’s checklist
Choosing compounding software is a decision the pharmacy will live with for a decade. The demo will always look good; the questions below help you find out how the system behaves on a busy day, when orders change and when something goes wrong.
1. Safety that is enforced, not suggested
- Can stock ever be consumed twice for the same preparation — for example after a double click, a refresh or a network retry?
- What happens when a physician changes an order after the preparation has been made or the label printed?
- Is the independent check enforced — can the compounder also be the checker?
- Are recalled and expired lots blocked at the point of selection?
2. Speed on a real worklist
- How long does it take to open one preparation, and to print labels for twenty?
- Can the worklist be sorted and filtered by any column the pharmacy uses?
- Can lots be selected once for the day rather than per preparation?
3. Calculations and rounding you can explain
- Which BSA formula is used, and is it the same everywhere in the system?
- How are carboplatin doses calculated, and is the estimated GFR capped? See our guide to chemotherapy dose calculation.
- Are infusion rates calculated from unrounded values and rounded once, at the end?
- Can each unit have its own rounding rules, with exceptions for products that need more precision?
4. Rules the pharmacy owns
Every hospital’s policies differ and change over time. Ask whether rounding, dose caps, verification steps, opening hours and label content are settings the pharmacy controls — with versioning and an audit trail — or code changes that need the vendor.
5. Labels
- Can pharmacists preview the exact label before it prints?
- Does every label carry a beyond-use date (see beyond-use dates under USP <795> and <797>)?
- Are labels designed for your printers — for example pure black for direct-thermal printers — and can they follow your hospital’s label policy?
6. Coverage of every unit
Chemotherapy, IV admixture, TPN, batch production and non-sterile compounding often end up in different systems. One system for all of them means one set of rules, one audit trail and one place to train staff.
7. Integration without surprises
- Which interfaces use open standards (HL7 v2, FHIR, REST) that the vendor builds and supports?
- Which depend on another vendor’s agreement or licence — for example automated dispensing cabinets, IV robots or TPN compounders?
- Who validates each interface at go-live?
8. Privacy and resilience
- Can the system run on the hospital’s own servers if required?
- Can labels still print if the network or a central service is down?
- Is access role-based, and is every action audited?
9. A rollout that protects patients
Ask for a shadow period: the new system runs beside the current process in one unit while time, clicks and errors are measured, and nothing is switched off until the pharmacy signs off the numbers.