Hi All
i am reviewing our alaris guardrails for heparin infusions and curious as to how other institutions are setting their guardrails mins/max's. we currently have 2 options - regular dose (below 2,500 units/hr and high dose (> 2,500 units/hr) but this seems to be causing a lot of unnecessary alerts. thinking of combining back to 1 option and trying to figure out the best soft min; soft max and hard max settings. what settings do you use at your institution? any other tips/tricks you are using to mitigate transcription issues would be much appreciated!

Hi,

Does anyone have any strategies for enhancing the safety of storage of many vaccines in a clinic setting? Although not on the LASA list, many do have similar names and appearances and with up to 15 vaccines used at one site we want to minimize the risk of a mix-up.

Thank you.

We are undertaking an overhaul of the which medications/processes require an independent double check / witness within the EMR. It is widely publicized that IDCs are commonly overused and misused. This in-turn degrades the utility of IDCs put in the correct place on correct meds/processes.

The goal would be to develop guidelines that could be used to determine if a med/process qualifies for an IDC, then it would go to the Medication Safety Team to make final determination along with other recommendations.

Hello,

I'm interested in learning about other people's experiences as it relates to Alaris Pump Modules and their Estimated Useful Life.

We utilize Alaris Pump Module 8100 and I am trying to obtain information regarding when we should look to update/replace our existing hardware. We have been unable to obtain clear guidelines on this from our BD Carefusion reps.

If administering vinca alkaloids via IV bag, is your practice to administer the medication via gravity infusion without a pump, or do you use an infusion pump and program as rapid infusion (e.g. 10 mins)?

Have you had any issues or seen disadvantages with administering as a gravity infusion without pumps?

Thank you,
Daniel

Hi,
Our large hospital system, 5 hospitals & 2 free standing EDs, is weighing the risk/benefit of labeling med bins in the Pyxis towers. One school of thought is that the med inventory stocked in the towers does not change (per policy), so labeling the bin with the med name is helpful to the RN. Aternative thought is that other meds could get loaded due to lack of space in Pyxis and it is a extra step (hence potential failure point) to re-label. The labels could also give a false sense of security to the RN who may overlook reading the med label.

For those who have had the experience in converting infusion pump vendors, have you developed a go-live risk assessment tool that you used and found beneficial? While assessments focused on drug library build would be helpful, I'm mostly looking for areas of risk to focus on related to conversion plan, day-of conversion and implementation.

How does your institution select the drug amount and volume used to set hard minimum concentrations for intermittent infusions in the smart pump drug library?

https://www.ismp.org/resources/smart-pump-custom-concentrations-without-...

The entire VA health system is converting to Cerner in the near future. In the meantime unrelated to Cerner and very related to ISMP Targeted Best Practices we as the safety center have been pushing hard for metric only measurement. (it’s a big system with an archaic information system so sites are genuinely worried about safe transitions).

I saw this last posted in 2014, but wanted to re-address given the heightened focus on NMBs. To comply with the ISMP recommendations of segregating NMBs in an RSI kit in patient care areas, we have standardized our RSI kits in the ICU and ED. We store them in the refrigerator both in the pharmacy and patient care area Pyxis'. These kits go in and out of the fridge and what I am wondering from this group is: