Hello All,

Where are you disposing your controlled substance waste?
Do you discard by flushing down the toilet/ sink? squirting waste into biohazard/ sharps? or another container such as Cactus?

Has any received any citations from Joint Commission regarding disposal of controlled substance waste in sharps containers as not being considered 'secure' and the controlled substance is not considered 'non-retrievable'

Thanks,
Olga

Hello All,

Has any had issues with the Joint Commission citing hazardous waste containers as being not secure? (because someone can put their hand into the container) They do not contain controlled substances. We are in the process of switching to Steri-cycle. Also looking into where to keep the containers? Currently in locked Med room. Is anyone storing anywhere else?

Thanks,
Olga Woloszczuk

Can anyone share their policy/procedure for administering enalapril IV push? Do you allow it? What are requirements?

There is some discussion at ASHP about requiring nursing to use filters for IV push medications that they prepare on the unit. Is anyone requiring this? Is this an old policy or a new one implemented with the minibag shortage?

The Radiology Department is asking pharmacy to weigh in on a policy that requires patients to have a driver if they need pretreatment of Prednisone and Diphenhydramine (50 mg orally) prior to contrast studies in patients with contrast allergy.

This has posed a hardship for many patients. Can anyone comment on this? Do you have objective criteria for evaluating / screeing patients for risk related to sedative properties of diphenhydramine?

Thanks for your input,

We have been streamlining our hazardous and reproductive risk medication processes here, which included automated alerts into our ADCs and carousel for front-line staff.

I am reaching out to other facilities to see how they handle labeling hazardous and/or reproductive risk medications, especially for intact oral tablets. Do you label every tablet individually or do you label only its packaging/container (i.e. baggie)? Any other different approaches?

Thank you!

We are working to establish a single health system policy that addresses medication safety (or similar) committee roles and responsibilities. If anyone with a system policy is willing to share your policy, we would be very appreciative. Thank you in advance.

Dear all:
I need your advice in this matter.
Currently in our hospital we are in the process of initiating a medical gas committee to govern the process for handling all aspects of medical gases in the hospital.
The hospital team is proposing that the pharmacy to lead/ chair this committee
Others are proposing that this shall be under the anesthesia department.
May I know in your hospital who lead/ chair similar committees if available.
And if not available, in your opinion/ experience who shall take the custody of this process.

How are other pediatric hospitals dispensing tiny doses of SQ desmopressin < 0.04 mCg (0.01 mL)? Does anyone have stability data to further dilute the 4 mCg/mL concentration that they could share.

For those institutions following the requirement to filter fat emulsion infusions with a 1.2 micron filter, have your nurses reported issues with the filters, especially after pausing the infusion to administer intermittent medications? Our nurses are getting downstream occlusion alarms on the pumps once the fat emulsion is started again. If you've experienced this, any suggestions on how to prevent this?

Thanks!