Concentrated Ketamine in ED and OR

PLEASE NOTE:   Posts made to this forum should not be considered as the expressed opinions of, nor should be considered endorsed by, the Medication Safety Officer’s Society (MSOS) or the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP). 

Make sure your email is up-to-date
In order to continue to receive updates from MSOS, as well as forum posts and other valuable information as a member of MSOS, please be sure to update your email address with us, whenever it changes. If you need assistance doing so, please send an email to jgold@ismp.org

4 posts / 0 new
Last post
Jennifer Matias
Jennifer Matias's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 months 3 days ago
Joined: 08/22/2015 - 19:25
Concentrated Ketamine in ED and OR

Have any institutions been asked to load concentrated ketamine (100 mg/ml) in the ED ADM? We currently have the 10 mg/ml strength loaded, but the concentrated ketamine is sent from the Pharmacy patient-specific.

This request from the ED seems to surface about every 6 months. We have shared with them the Vermont ketamine overdose story and various ISMP newsletters, but the ED providers seem to be pretty insistent on having the medication on hand. A couple other pieces of information: The ED ADM is currently non-profiled at our organizaton (we're not there yet) AND the concentrated ketamine is used for off label indication in the ED (administered IM for excited delirium).

For those who have been in this same situation, I would very much like to hear how your institution handled the situation. Did you stand firm on not loading it? Or do you have BOTH concentrations of ketamine available in the ED? If the latter, then what measures have you taken to ensure its safe use?

I would appreciate any and all advice. Thank you in advance.

Tags: