Helping Pharmacists Prevent Medication Cross-Contamination

Pharmacists consider medication cross-contaminationtransferred contaminants could pose serious threats,
is a major issue during the pill counting process.  Pillssuch as allergic reactions from drugs like penicillin and
can leave dust or residue on the pill counting unitsulfides or even death due to contamination from
causing safety concerns. To avoid such errors, thechemotherapy drugs.
C-RAY Automatic Pill Counting Machine has opticKnowing how powerful drugs are and that
sensors located at the bottom of the pill chute thatcross-contamination is a major issues for hospitals,
can be easily cleaned to eliminate any possibility ofpharmacies and consumers and that
contamination. Replacement trays are also available tocross-contamination could be fatal. Deltatee
prevent cross-contamination.Innovation addresses this issue aggressively during
The danger of cross-contamination has been anthe design phase of the C-RAY Pill counting machine.
important issue for years, according to research *ByThey have designed the C-RAY Pill Counting Machine
using a thin layer chromatography, phenoxymethylto be easily cleaned and additional replacement trays
penicillin, sulphadiazine, aspirin and paracetamol werein order to circumvent pills contaminating other pills.
identified as contaminants which were transferred by* Po, A. L. W., Morland, I. and Robins, L. (1977),
automatic counting machines. Quantitative analysis byCHEMICAL CROSS-CONTAMINATION IN THE
densitometry indicated that as much as 9.75 mg ofPHARMACY. Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and
aspirin, the model contaminant used, could beTherapeutics, 2: 131–135. doi: 10.1111
transferred to 50 hard gelatin capsules following thej.1365-2710.1977.tb00083.
counting of 100 aspirin 300-mg tablets. The