For sites that do not typically stock insulin pens inpatient, how do you approach the patient assessment and teaching for new insulin pen starts prior to discharge? If the teaching/assessment is handled by nursing, what kind of competency do you require?

Hello all,

Hi,

Dear all:

I would like to take your opinion in the following:
In our hospital we use Insulin pen in the inpatient setting as a patient specific medication devices, when dispensing the medication to the patient we label it with a patient specific dose including patient identification, dose, route frequency and a barcode. and when there is any change in the dose and/or frequency the pharmacy is expected to re-dispense a new pen to the patient labelled with a correct information that is reflected on the medication barcode.

We are an Epic hospital and are considering adding a patient specific bar code on insulin pens to help prevent wrong patient errors. For hospitals with experience with this:
1. Has the patient specific bar code been successful in decreasing wrong patient errors with insulin pens?
2. Has there been any issues/errors associated with using a patient specific bar code?
3. Do you use Dispense Prep or any other verification technology to ensure the right label is placed on the right pen in Pharmacy?

Hello,
Does your organization have a functionality within a Cerner Millennium EHR of being able to scan for correct patient AND correct product? Currently, we scan patient and scan Manufacturer bar code but this does not prevent accidental exposure of using another patient's insulin pen. Sharing your solution would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

Marilyn Hargett

I know there has been some recent discussion on this lately, but one of our pharmacists has put together a survey on insulin pens so we really would appreciate any additional insight on the questions below. If easier, you email or private message back with the answers. Once collected we will summarize and post back on the site.
Thanks for your assistance! Diane diane.schultz@seattlechildrens.org

Greetings!

Does anyone use insulin pens for inpatient administration? If so, what is your administration process? Storage? On unit? In patient room? How is the pen itself labeled? Labeled with patient information bar code or are you just scanning the pen itself at administration? Any information you provide would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

For those institutions using insulin pens:

1. Do you use patient specific barcodes for barcode medication administration (BCMA) of insulin from insulin pens?

a. If so, which EHR vendor do you use?