Sharing the survey results for this poll. "Our organization is re-evaluating our process around defining dosing weight in the electronic medical record. I would appreciate your response to this very brief poll (requires 1-2 minutes to complete). Responses will be shared."

https://forms.gle/DHEF29CxboFztKxg7

Hi All,

Following the ISMP Safety Alert from November 4, 2021, our institution is assessing our process for hypertonic sodium chloride solutions. We do allow for sodium chloride 23.4% vials to be stocked in secure cubies in the NeuroICU with a blind count and cannot be overridden.

We are curious regarding the differentiation of "hypertonic" and "concentrated" for sodium chloride 3% and sodium chloride 23.4% respectively. Initial feedback was that "concentrated" isn't typically associated with sodium chloride 23.4% and could cause confusion.

For those sites that utilize formaldehyde for OR cases (urology, surgery oncology) - can you share where you procure the product or any words of wisdom?
Thanks -
Maria Cumpston, PharmD, CPPS
Medication Safety Officer
WVU Medicine

Hello everyone,

I would like to have your valuable inputs on;

1) How to dispose the expired vials of Remdesivir Injections ?

2) How to dispose Covid vaccine vials?

Hello!
I was recently interested in improving our process of pulling expired medications from our inventory and was wondering what solutions other institutions/pharmacies have been instigating to help with this? I would greatly appreciate any suggestions/feedback! Thank you.

Hi,
We recently got a request from our pediatric acute care nurses to add pediatric peritoneal dialysis fluids to our EMR dual-signoff list. They feel it is infrequent, the cycler is unfamiliar to them, and it is operates outside of pump/EMR interoperability. We are also trying to limit our required dual-signoff meds.

Do any of your Children's Hospitals have this process associated with dual-signoff, or have had frequent errors associated with it?

Thank you,
Kara Thornton
UVA Health

Hello all,

I want to inquire about becoming a certified medication safety officer (CMSO). In your opinion, what programs are valuable and will enhance my ability to succesfully become a CMSO.

Thank you!

I see this was discussed about 2 years ago, but I am wondering if this is a continuing issue for other facilities. Has anyone addressed the issue of delayed/omitted doses of medications due to nurses forgetting to activate or reconstitute duplex bags? We have had several recent errors in which an antibiotic dose was delayed or missed due to the RN forgetting to activate the bag. We have large red auxiliary labels that indicate activation is needed and have sent out education, but these errors have led us to re-evaluate. We currently use the duplex bags for meropenem and ceftriaxone.

I am relatively new to a medication safety pharmacist role at my facility. Currently it is only 50% of my FTE. Looking for feedback on day to day work, initiatives, committees that others are participating in while in this role. I have already been involved for several years in error reporting process and follow ups, med safety workgroups, IT workgroups, opiod stewardship, education initiatives, pyxis, cleanroom initiatives, etc. Just looking for any other ideas that others would like to share. Any feedback is appreciated! Thanks!

I see this was discussed about 2 years ago, but I am wondering if this is a continuing issue for other facilities. Has anyone addressed the issue of delayed/omitted doses of medications due to nurses forgetting to activate or reconstitute duplex bags? We have had several recent errors in which an antibiotic dose was delayed or missed due to the RN forgetting to activate the bag. We have large red auxiliary labels that indicate activation is needed and have sent out education, but these errors have led us to re-evaluate. We currently use the duplex bags for meropenem and ceftriaxone.