Dear all,
We received reports of difficulty scanning white barcodes such as those on IV fluids. We are trying to understand the issue deeper. If you can, would you please answer these three questions?

1. Are your scanners able to scan the white IV fluid barcodes (e.g. NS 1000 mL) without any additional manipulation? (e.g. placing against a dark object or body etc.)

2. What company/ barcode scanner do you use?

3. If you cannot scan without manipulation- Could you upgrade your device so you can scan. Is that possible with your vendor? 

How do you dispense pentamidine for inhalation?

Does the pharmacy prepare this? Does Respiratory prepare this?

If pharmacy prepares, how is it dispensed? In a syringe, vial, other?

Thank you,
Tina

Hi All,
Looking to find out what your practice is when dispensing hazardous medications as defined by NIOSH/OSHA/Your Hospital.

Do you dispense the IV medication inside of a Ziplock bag?

Do you double bag this bag?

Do you require individuals handling the ziplock bag or double bagged medications to wear gloves when handling the outer bag in transport/prior to taking out the medication for administration?

Thank you in advance!
Tina

We are looking to use Alaris Smart Pump on Epoprostenol and Treprostinil as a continuous infusion. I am requesting your success and issues using the pump with these  pulmonary hypertension agents. In addition, can you share the Drug Library setup for Epoprostenol and Treprostinil?

Thanks,

Joe

Joseph T. Moss, Jr., PharmD, MBA

System Clinical Informatics Pharmacist

UH Case Medical Center

11100 Euclid Avenue, Wearn 102

Mail Stop: WRN 5006

Cleveland, OH 44106

Office: 216-844-4248

Cell: 330-416-9715

What are your order requirements for titration orders? Do you require any of the following?:

• Starting Dose
• Maximum Dose
• Monitoring Parameter (e.g. SBP, MAP, etc.)
• Amount of Incremental Dose Adjustments
• Frequency of Incremental Dose Adjustments

If you require any of these elements, do they have to be included in the order or are you allowing nurses to reference guidelines/policy/protocol when the prescriber fails to include this level of detail in the order?

Thanks,

Ramona

Good afternoon,

Do you have an auto-stop discontinuation for opiate orders?  If so, what is the therapy length before discontinuation?  Do providers receive a prompt that the order will be expiring, or a prompt suggesting re-order if therapy still indicated?  

thank you,

Rebecca Prevost PharmD

Medication Safety Officer, Florida Hospital, Orlando, FL

Hi,

we are experiencing a shortage of Plegisol and would like to compound our own cardioplegia solution using our Baxter Compounder (Exactamix 2400) but have never done so. I am concerned about the pH. Does anyone have any recipe, including BUD they would be willing so share?

Thank you in advance for help!!

Melissa Marshall, Pharm.D., BCPS

University of Miami Hospital

mmarshall@med.miami.edu

Does anyone have first hand knowledge of preferential safety reasons for using BD Cato (newer product) over the older product DosEdge?

Thanks.

DiAnthia Patrick, PharmD

Medication Safety Coordinator

Children's National Health System

For those with pediatric patients, do you allow parents to administer PCA doses?  If you do, would you be willing to share any policy and/or procedures for how you have implemented? 

Best,

Drew

How is your med safety committee organized?  Our P&T committee is named the Medication Safety and Therapeutics (MS&T) Committee.  We are looking to carve Med Safety out of this committee and set it up as its own separate subcommittee that reports up to P&T (instead of lumping them together).  Does anyone have a Med Safety Committe charter that they would be willing to share with us as we are attempting to set up our committee structure?