Erin Higgins | January 17, 2019
While regulations for sterile compounding have been around for decades, many hospital pharmacies around the country are now faced with a new compliance challenge: USP 800. USP 800 was initially proposed in 2015 and officially goes into effect on Dec. 1, 2019. Unlike the current standards set by USP 797, which are generally designed to... Read More
Bryan Connors | January 10, 2019
Whether chairing your hospital’s safety committee or participating as a member, many of us struggle to energize our committees and to keep momentum. The value your safety committee holds for the organization depends upon many factors, but there are some common themes to effective safety committees. An active and effective safety committee is an integral... Read More
Will Wade | December 10, 2018
Recent Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) regulatory changes have significant impacts on construction sites where asbestos contaminated soil is present. Many sites, particularly those with a history of industrial, commercial or dumping activities, have soil that contains asbestos, often at “trace” (less than 1 percent) amounts. If asbestos in soil has been identified at... Read More
Steven Lee | November 15, 2018
The goal of any early stage biotech company is continual growth and success. However, as positive as company growth is, unless you initially leased an enormous laboratory, you may find that success means growing out of your existing space and designing a new one. In the biotechnology entrepreneurship world, growing and moving on is far... Read More
Steven Lee | October 30, 2018
Moving a biotech laboratory to a new space isn’t as simple as renting a U-Haul and packing up boxes. You’ll have specific responsibilities and obligations that need to be followed to ensure you leave behind a clean, safe space for the next tenant. First thing’s first: determine your decommissioning obligation. Hopefully these details were worked... Read More
Bryan Connors | October 2, 2018
Healthcare-acquired infections aren’t just dangerous to patients — they can also be very costly for the facilities in question. Since procedures and processes that are high risk for infection are performed in places like operating rooms and central processing, ensuring proper pressurization and ventilation to avoid infection is a matter of life and death. The... Read More
Anthony Troiano | September 14, 2018
Biosafety Level 2 Plus (BSL-2+) is the common term for laboratories where work with microorganisms is conducted in a BSL-2 laboratory with biosafety practices and procedures that are typically found at BSL-3. The need for this hybrid approach is on the rise in recent years due to increased research with viral vectors, arboviruses, and other... Read More
Cindee Campisano | August 27, 2018
Typically, when we think about the dangers of oil spills, we think of mass quantities of oil affecting large bodies of water. However, effective oil spill protection involves thinking much broader and smaller. In fact, just one single pint of oil spilled into a body of water can damage up to an acre of an... Read More
Michael Della Barba | August 3, 2018
Researchers have put the average cost of construction rework at roughly 4 to 6 percent of a project’s total cost—and closer to 9 percent upon factoring in overhead costs. Too often rework is the result of an overlooked omission on the early drawings, something minute that isn’t addressed by a design team focused on the... Read More
Bryan Connors | July 30, 2018
The most widely publicized sterile drug compound contamination outbreak was traced back to the New England Compounding Center in 2012. This outbreak led to more than 800 cases and 64 deaths. The direct cause of these infections was fungal contamination of methylprednisolone that led to the development of fungal meningitis. Perhaps the most shocking detail... Read More