Dear Colleague: The ISMP subsidiary, Med-ERRS, is looking for a few pharmacy directors or purchasing decision makers who will be attending the ASHP Summer Meeting in Denver, where they will be holding an advisory board meeting on Saturday evening. The board will focus on how certain products currently are prepared in the pharmacy, what the process is for including a new preparation on the formulary, who the key decision-makers are for this change, and how this change may impact pharmacy workflow.

Our institution has been utilizing a 503B Pharmacy for outsourcing prefilled Cefazolin Syringes. We have been experiencing great delays in receiving the medication and we’ve been reverting back and forth to mixing IVPB. I have been looking for a secondary supplier but had no luck finding a local pharmacy or any pharmacy that would ship the product. Any recommendations?
Regards,
Samar Abouelella

We are updating our patient education handout regarding hazardous medications, especially in the area of safely using long acting hazardous medications in the home (testosterone, Lupron/provera therapy etc). If you have an patient handout, would mind sharing this? Thank you!

Can anyone recommend a company that manufactures metric-only oral measuring devices (e.g. Oral syringes)?

Hello everyone,
Does anyone have a source for the new warning labels for this best practice? The warning was revised and now states "Warning: Paralyzing Agent-Causes Respiratory Arrest-Patient Must Be Ventilated." I didn't know if there was a place to purchase this as a sticker or is everyone making their own? Thanks!

Interested to hear how others are currently managing the storage and distribution of ViperSlide (by Cardiovascular Systems Inc) in their facilities. Is the product maintained by pharmacy or central supply? Also, would love to hear any other safeguards others have put in place. I thought this had been featured in an article by ISMP in 2012 but cannot seem to find the information.

Are other facilities adding medications to the product? If so, is it maintained on the MAR?

I appreciate any insight others are willing to share/provide. Thanks!

We are struggling with the shortage of Bupivacaine in dextrose for spinal anesthesia. What is your hospital using &/or what steps are you taking to make your Bupivacaine in dextrose for spinal anesthesia last?
Thank You!
Cathy Goetz
St. Luke's Hospital
cathy.goetz@stlukes-stl.com

Does any institution currently utilize nitrous oxide for non-neuraxial labor analgesia? If so, would you be willing to share:
1. A protocol or policy and procedure used to implement the program?
2. Vendors or manufacturers utilized for the blender and scavenger systems? At this point, I think we would be more interested in a portable system as opposed to having it piped through the wall.
3. Concentration utilized for the blend: 50/50 or other? Anyone using up to a 72/25 blend?

Is anyone currently converting or upgrading Pyxis models, and are operating with two different versions in the same department or medical office? If so, any safety specific concerns arise or been addressed? Any patient error reporting increases with operating on two different models?

Thank you

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