Hello,
I am seeking information to see if any organizations are utilizing “bar code scanning” technology in the MRI depts when administering contrast and/or other medications. Looking forward to any and all responses.

Thank you
Marilyn Hargett

We have a segregated compounding area and have orders for a 5-FU 46 hour administration. Does anyone have any experience with allowing extended administration times with this type of compounding room?

Thanks in advance!

Hello all!

Need some help / guidance...

Wondering what other organizations are doing with regards to ophthalmic drops in the OR related to using ophthalmic drops. We have a big push from our Ophthalmology provider group to reduce waste and to move away from Single Use of eye drop bottles and move toward multi-use (with processes in place) in the OR and our clinic spaces where eye drop bottles are managed by clinical staff.

Hi all,

We've just needed to get concentrated potassium chloride in the new EXCEL bag presentation rather than the glass vials. We got the NAN alert a couple months ago, but the supply change took us a bit by surprise.

Has anyone taken any extra steps to ensure the bags aren't inadvertently distributed outside of pharmacy, given that they look like every other BBraun product?

Thank you,
Kara Thornton

UVA Health - kara@virginia.edu

Does your facility consider REMS medications to be high-alert? It would seem to me that they meet the definition of "medications are most likely to cause significant harm to the patient, even when used as intended."

At our hospital, only generic drug names are displayed on the pharmacy labels.
We got a request to add Brand Name in addition to generic name in order to differentiate certain LASA meds.

For example:
Current state: duloxetine 30 mg capsule

Proposed change: duloxetine (Cymbalta) 30 mg capsule

Does your hospital have brand name as part of the drug name displayed on the pharmacy label?

My other concern is: if we affix a pharmacy label with brand name on a generic product, isn't this considered "misbranding"?

Thank you!

Our system is currently in the process of consolidating 11 individual Alaris pump libraries into 1 system library. We still have independent IV administration guidelines that dictate areas in the hospital that certain medications can be given and monitoring along with it.

Have any of you consolidated your IV administration guidelines as a system? What parameters did you use to broadly define areas within the IV administration guideline that can be expanded to other hospitals or in times of high census where patients are in hallways.

What weight do you typically utilize when calculating IVIG RATE for administration--actual or ideal? Can you please provide the rationale?

Best,
Stacie Ethington MSN, RN
Medication Safety Nurse Specialist
Nebraska Medicine

Hello All,

Based on ISMP best practice, patient weights should be documented in admission and during each appropriate outpatient or emergency encounter.

*Appropriate = encounter where patient being seen by licensed independent practitioner (excluding emergencies where delay may cause harm). Encounters that involved lab and other services where medications are not prescribed or administered would be considered an exclusion.

We have had 3 cases of cardiac arrest after a dose of ceftriaxone via IV push, one case in 2020, and two more cases recently. None of these cases had any other features of typical anaphylactic reactions (no hives, swelling, etc.).

Have any other sites experienced similar cases? If so, what were the details of the events? Do you believe the rate of IV push increases the risk of these reactions?

Any information would be much appreciated!