Norepinephrine concentration related pump programming errors

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Vimerald Hernan...
Vimerald Hernando Henss's picture
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Joined: 06/11/2022 - 14:04
Norepinephrine concentration related pump programming errors

Hello Med Safety colleagues.

Our institution currently uses norepinephrine 4mg/250ml (16mcg/ml) and 16mg/250mL as our standard and maximum concentrations, respectively.
Unfortunately, due to the number "16" associated with both, we have had multiple pump errors reported.
We do not have pump integration at this time, and we dose norepi in "mcg/min."

There has been much discussion on what concentrations (based on ASHP's standardize 4 safety" initiative) we should stock to mitigate this safety concern, but not a lot of agreement between Nursing and Pharmacy (or even between pharmacists).

Questions for this group:

1. What concentrations of norepi do your institutions stock for standard and maximum concentrations?
2. Do you compound either of them on a regular basis or only provide commercially available products?
3. What safeguards do you have in place to prevent med errors associated with this med?

Thank you in advance!

Vee

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