Monitoring for IV opioid medications, including PCA's and IV push

PLEASE NOTE:   Posts made to this forum should not be considered as the expressed opinions of, nor should be considered endorsed by, the Medication Safety Officer’s Society (MSOS) or the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP). 

Make sure your email is up-to-date
In order to continue to receive updates from MSOS, as well as forum posts and other valuable information as a member of MSOS, please be sure to update your email address with us, whenever it changes. If you need assistance doing so, please send an email to jgold@ismp.org

2 posts / 0 new
Last post
Alissa Carter
Alissa Carter's picture
Offline
Last seen: 1 year 10 months ago
Joined: 05/27/2017 - 17:18
Monitoring for IV opioid medications, including PCA's and IV push

We are currently reviewing our pain assessment and management policy.

Would anyone be willing to share their current policy and/or IV administration guidelines for opioids? I am interested in monitoring for continuous opioid infusions, PCAs, and IV push opioids.

I am interested in when you recommend patients be placed on continuous pulse ox, frequency of vital sign monitoring, and any additional monitoring guidelines you may have in place following IV opioid administration.

Also, does your facility restrict where IV push fentanyl can be administered given the black box warning for respiratory depression?

Thank you for sharing your insight and expertise.

Alissa Carter, PharmD, BCPS
Opioid Stewardship Co-Chair
Critical Care pharmacy specialist
Methodist Richardson Medical Center