Dispensing bulk bottles for OTC oral liquids

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

5 posts / 0 new
Last post
Karen Thompson
Karen Thompson's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 months 2 weeks ago
Joined: 05/03/2009 - 02:30
Dispensing bulk bottles for OTC oral liquids

We have a technician that spends many hours preparing thousands of batched oral syringes each month of OTC items for our pediatric patients: Poly-Vi-Sol 0.25 mL, ferrous sulfate 0.3 mL, Vit D 1mL, and simethicone 0.6 mL. Since the syringe size is so small, there is no way to automate the process with a syringe filling pump or autowrapping label machine. Everything must be done by hand. I support drawing up exact doses of most pediatric oral liquids, but I would like to draw the line at OTCs. If parents can be trusted to draw up the correct dose, I think we should be able to trust our RNs to do the same. Is anyone dispensing bulk containers of OTC items for single patient use? Note: When I say "bulk", I am referring to the smallest multidose container available. Vit D3 50mL, simethicone 30mL, ferrous sulfate 50mL, and Poly-Vi-sol 50mL.