Hello,

For those involved in USP 800 program implementation/maintenance for your organization, especially larger institutions with a main cancer center and many community infusion centers:

What is your general approach to handling hazardous drug spills?

1. Do you have different processes for large centers vs. small community sites?

2. Who is involved in the hazardous drug spill response? What (if any) role do the following stakeholders play: pharmacy, nursing, chemical safety, environmental services, etc.?

We are working on updating our policy on 503B outsourcing to standardize our process. Does anyone have a policy they are willing to share? Our current policy is so vague I'd like to add a SOP to delineate the specifics. My biggest concern is the documentation piece. Do you require quarterly safety reports?

My hospital is in the process of implementing a policy that allows the use of medical cannabis on their premises for terminally ill patients with a valid Medical Marijuana
Identification Card (MMIC) or/ recommendation from an attending physician. (Ryan's Law).

One of the questions we are trying to address is the requirement of a locked container – does it need to be affixed to the wall or can it be a lock box that we can provide to the patient or caregiver? What are some ways that your hospital has implemented this requirement?

I appreciate your time and input!

Hello fellow Med Safety officers.

We recently conducted an insulin storage audit at our organization and identified some opportunities for improvement.
I am hoping to get an idea of how other hospitals are storing and dispensing insulin vials.

At your respective facilities:
1. Are insulin products dispensed as patient specific, multi-patient use or a combination of both (e.g. long acting insulins - pt specific, rapid acting insulin = multi-patient use)?

Dear all,

I wanted to learn your current processes to prevent propofol diversion (storage in the pharmacy, in patient care units, and OR). Do you have it as a controlled medication (if your state does not require it)?

Thank you,
Deepika

Has anyone successfully instituted an automatic stop time for opioids or benzodiazepines while in-patient and is willing to share their policy or procedure? Likewise, if anyone has successfully used pharmacy to minimize discharge on these classes unnecessarily, would love to hear about it as well.
Thanks all.

Hello! I am interested in learning if anyone has done work to improve safety for medication orders that are only needed during the dialysis session.

For example, what safeguards are in place to prevent an order for heparin, only needed during dialysis, from being administered outside of the dialysis "procedure".

Appreciate any thoughts or insights you may have!

Kind regards,
Jen

Hi all,
Do any health systems/hospitals with pediatric populations have independent pharmacist double checks for IV or oral products after it has been prepped/compounded by technician? If so, what meds or times does this occur?
Thanks!
Casey Moore

Hello all,

Less than a year ago, pharmacy started sending inactivated Clinimix bags to the floor for nurses to activate at time of administration to extend beyond use date versus activating in pharmacy and delivering to the floor hours later (we rolled this out along with a similar process for CRRT bags). Unfortunately, we have had numerous errors where the Clinimix activation did not occur and was noticed on rounds or by another shift. We do not have Pyxis space to add to there and provide an alert / CDC.