I was tasked to reach out to this group to see if there is any type of benchmarking for medication errors within healthcare.
I realize our goal is to prevent/reduce the severity however I would love for the number to be zero!
My guess is that it will vary by organization and human factors.
Any insight is always helpful.
Thank you
Marilyn Hargett

I was tasked to reach out to this group to see if there is any type of benchmarking for medication errors within healthcare.
I realize our goal is to prevent/reduce the severity however I would love for the number to be zero!
My guess is that it will vary by organization and human factors.
Any insight is always helpful.
Thank you
Marilyn Hargett

Hello,
I am inquiring about how other organizations handle medications for intra op orders. Are all the meds (such as ATB, ATB for irrigation, cardiac drips) available in the OR for anesthesiologist to pick from a pyxis machine or department stock therefore not utilizing a pharmacist? If pharmacy dispenses, is there an order sent to pharmacy? Is the preference card for a case utilized as the order for pharmacy?
Your input would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Marilyn Hargett

For the medication use process involving chemotherapy infusions, what is best practice? We are reviewing our current process and I wish to know what other pharmacies are doing for inpatient and outpatient chemotherapy infusions. We have CPOE & BCMA as part of the process. Do you have two pharmacists independently verify the order prior to compounding? Does the person preparing infusion select the medication? Do you have a checklist? Do you utilize IV workflow software? Do you have two people verify compounded product prior to administration?

For those of you who have BCMA at your facility, does your Cath Lab and/or procedural areas also use BCMA? We're getting reports that it impedes workflow and directs attention away from the patient during critical moments. Curious if others have had issues with this as well. Thanks,

Cortney Swiggart
Med Safety Officer

We have an order set for insulin that contains orders for hypoglycemia treatment and also an order for D10 for hypoglycemia prevention. If the patient receives NPH insulin and continuous tube feeds are later stopped, the nurse is to hang D10 at the same rate as the feeding rate. The D10 order may be placed days before the tube feeds are stopped for procedure or other reason. Our nurses are not hanging the D10 in all cases and we see 1-2 safety events each month for hypoglycemia due to this.

Does anyone have experience yet with IONSYS, the fentanyl iontophoretic transdermal system? Curious about how it is stacking up against IV PCA. Mike

Curious to know if anyone has a protocol for pediatric IV fluid volumes based on weight or is everyone using liter premixed bags with smart pumps on any age?

I would appreciate any guidance on policies or SOP's defining the use, ordering, dispensing of medications for education/simulation. If you have an existing policy I could view it would be helpful. Thank you.

Dear All

Recently some of the NICU Physicians raise an issue on efficacy/Potency of Vancomycin 5 mg/ml in Dextrose 5% W/V syringes that are supplied from our IV admixture unit.
They suspect the concentration of the active ingredient is less in the syringes, as they did therapeutic drug monitoring. Recently I spoke to one of the NICU specialists regarding the wrong frequency of Vancomycin (As per NICU Antibiotic guideline), he told that this baby’s TDM result shows very low trough, so he increased the frequency from Q8 Hourly to Q6 Hourly.