We have been waiting for over 1 year to implement a new system of central monitoring. All of the tags/sensors and probes have been in place for the last year, but we were waiting to swap out many of our med refrig bc the old ones went out of range all the time. We have over 150 med refrigerators. For those who use a central monitoring system:

Our practice has been to date all bulk bottles ( liquids) with date opened but are considering discontinuing this practice. In speaking with several manuf, product is good until expiration listed unless otherwise specified.I have not found any regulations mandating this practice. Since some bottles are low use ( and expensive $500) we do not want to discard after a year which seems to be what we have done in the past. Any thoughts?

http://www.imt.ie/news/latest-news/2015/10/hospitals-needed-more-medicat...

Hi all -

Does anyone have a policy, guidelines, etc of your expectations of what will constitute med rec in your different ambulatory settings? I'm thinking of those alternate kind of locations, like wound centers, outpatient infusion, imaging centers, etc. Any insight is greatly appreciated!

Elizabeth Rebo

We currently restrict fentanyl drips and fentanyl IV push to critical care areas only, however PCAs are allowed on med/surg as long as Anesthesia is managing. We are re-evaluating all of this.

Is anyone using fentanyl routinely in the med/surg population? Any lessons learned to share?

Thank you,

Erica Fredette
South Shore Hospital
Weymouth, MA

We recently had to suspend the use of J-tips filled with buffered lidocaine due to a significant number of malfunction reports. Reports ranged from the J-tip syringe cracking to what was described as "exploding" when activated. After looking into potential sources of the problem including user training, drug stability, expiration dating, and compounding pharmacies we were unable to pinpoint the problem.

Our system is working to standardize parenteral nutrition support. We would greatly appreciate your input and guidance on the following questions:

Our facilities prepare their PNs in two different ways:

A. Withdraw the volume so there is no residual left in the bag after 24-hours
B. Do not withdraw the volume, so there is residual volume remaining in the bag after the 24-hr infusion (nursing disposes the remaining volume)

-What does your facility do?

Hello,
We started implementing bedside medication and patient wristband scanning just over one year ago. We have generally good scan rates in our Rehab/CCC/Med/Surg areas of the hospital, however struggle with scan rates in our ICU. I'm looking for input on the following questions:

Has anybody implemented ISMP's recommendation from the July-Sep Quarterly Action Agenda to build in a drug interaction alert for methylene blue and SSRIs?
If yes, did you take into account what amounts of methylene blue are being used in procedures?
Thanks
Susan

Our health system is looking at switching out our current smart pump technology. Prior to sending an RFP, we would like to hear how other institutions are satisfied with their own technology. Please respond to the following questions and thank you in advance for your help!
1. What size hospital are you in?
2. What kinds of pumps do you use and are any of them integrated with your electronic medical record?
3. Overall, do you feel the pumps are performing well in your environment?
4. Do nurses have any complaints with the pumps?