Hi everyone,
Just to clarify a few things that have come up recently:
1) Chemotherapy Drugs should come from pharmacy with an ORANGE CHEMO label, alerting us that ONLY chemo-certified nurses (7B) are permitted to administer these drugs. Hazardous medications like Ganciclovir, or the IL-2 given on 7C are labeled as Potentially Hazardous, and should be handled accordingly (Policy C-155 https://www.musc.edu/medcenter/policy/Med/C155.pdf) but do not require chemo-certification to administer. If you are uncertain, the 7B charge nurse is a great resource.
Regardless of hazard potential, please be sure to DOUBLE-CHECK all high-alert medications prior to administration, and co-sign in McKesson.
2) While on the topic of medication administration- There is a new hospital-wide initiative to improve the usage of Guardrails. There will be more info coming out of EROC this week, so look for it, but in a nut-shell: Every thing you run through a pump must go through Guardrails- every med, fluid, flush, etc. Any time you pick "Basic Infusion" it counts against us. Our Guardrails usage is currently at about 40%, our goal is 90%. The pharmacists have worked very hard to widen the libraries, and there is a form you can submit if there is a drug/concentration you can't find. Choices like NS carrier and PRBC's are being added to help this initiative. Again, more info to come, but please begin using guardrails EVERY time immediately. I can help submit requests for additions to the library, so email me if you're having trouble finding something.
3) Pre-mixed Formula bags that come from dietary (the ones we spike) are good for 48 HOURS. It has been our practice to change feed bags daily, but this is another way we can save time and $. Label the tubing when it is spiked, and it is good for 48 hours. Feed bags we fill ourselves will continue to be changed daily. Any questions, let me know.
Erin
Wanted to clarify the tube feeding thing, now that we are saying its ok to keep the feed bags up for 48 hrs.,is the tubing good for 48hr as well? currently our practice is to change them every 24 hrs. just wanted to check? That would be a way to also cut costs, also seems silly to change one and not the other. Thanks Anna D.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYes, the tubing is good for 48 hours for feeds we spike from dietary. Again, feed bags we fill ourselves are changed every 24 hours. I know we talked about it this morning, but I wanted to clarify in case someone else had the same question. Thanks Anna!
Delete