Do you require IDC for targeted high alert medications withdrawn from an ADC in profiled mode (not on override)? If yes would you please share some examples and at which steps of the medication use process it is applied or which fields are verified?

We are working on harmonizing our IDC policy for our 8 hospitals within our institution. Two of them (the largest) don’t have yet an ADC. At these 2 hospitals, they do not apply IDC for the targeted high alert medications if the pharmacy dispenses them in a format ready for administration and labelled with the patient identifications. The rational is that they consider that the IDC has been performed by the pharmacy for the required fields. (The administering nurse still checks all her “rights” and double identify the patient before administering the medication.)

For all the other sites who have ADCs, the general rule is to apply IDC for targeted medications at all steps and required fields whether the prescription has been entered into the pharmacy system and validated by the pharmacist or not. By comparing the practices, it feels like those without an ADC should at least require IDC for all targeted medications regardless of their readiness for use and patient identification by the pharmacy, or to be consistent we should level down and accept on the basis of what these two hospitals are doing that IDC be performed only for products requiring preparation by the nurse when withdrawn from the ADC in a profiled mode.

Would love hearing your thoughts on this.