I am part of a 500+ bed, urban, academic organization. As far as antibiotic infusions go, we currently only run Zosyn as a primary infusion (run over 4 hours); our other antibiotic infusions are run as a primary/secondary set up. During the normal saline shortage, we ran all antibiotics primary and flushed with a 10 mL flush post infusion. Now that we are able to go back to our primary/secondary set up, we are getting some pushback from nursing.

How does your organization infuse IV antibiotics?

We are a pediatric hospital and frequently use empty, sterile IV bags. With the national shortage we are implementing processes to conserve our supply. We have: 1) split IV doses up to 240ml into equal volume syringes 2) Compound selected drips in pre-made IV fluid bags 3) Compound stock bags of medication in larger volumes 4) Communicated with providers for IV to PO conversion and timely discontinuing of IV fluids 5) Antibiotic Stewardship will help ensure antibiotics are ordered with the longest acceptable frequency.