Does Your Facility Use Syringe Labels to Manage Injectable Medicines?
Does Your Facility Use Syringe Labels To Manage Injectable Medicines?
Syringe labels are imperative to medical facilities and pharmacies because they decrease the risk of administering the wrong medications or prescriptions to patients. Medicines are often pre-loaded into syringes to quickly provide a drug to a patient and to ensure proper dosage is given. However, the practice of having injectable drugs available also increases the risk of administration errors. While health professionals are trained to handle these items appropriately, a number of scenarios have occurred due to improper labeling or lack of identification.
A nurse might be pre-loading syringes, but is suddenly called away to another situation. The doctor might think it is a certain drug only to find out after that they have administered the wrong one to the patient. In these situations, the result might only be minimal harm of the patient depending on allergies or other factors. Medicines also do not always mix well together making syringe labels an essential part of any health facility or pharmacy. Many facilities use easy to read syringe labels to make certain the correct medicine and dosage are given.
What Are the Benefits of Syringe Labels?
An unlabeled syringe easily results in the administration of the wrong medicine or dose. Additionally, any unlabeled item containing an anesthetic or another type of drug will often pass through several hands. During this passing, the writing on the identifier might smudge or wear. At other times it could be unlabeled making it hard to identify the medicine once it reaches its destination. Another example might be loading a syringe with a medicine, but then leaving it in an area such as where the saline flushes are kept. This could result in the IV being accidentally flushed with a drug rather than saline.
Even the most detailed professional can have a mix-up and syringe labels are imperative to preventing errors during administration. The labels come in multiple colors based on federal recommendations and have the drug name printed right on them. Facilities and pharmacists are able to order color coded options for printing on-site as well. The benefits of using syringe labels to properly identify injectable medicines include:
- Easier Drug & Dosage Identification
- Reduced Risk of Administration Errors
- Easier to Meet Compliance Requirements
- Saves Time & Simplifies Preparation
- Limits Chance of Patient Harm
- Easier to Store & Manage Medicines
Syringe labels have many benefits with the most important being reduced risk of patient harm. Several qualities must be present to ensure the label does not block the dosage marker and provides all necessary information for easy identification. If it has been designated to a patient, then their name should be on the label in bold along with the drug name and the dosage. Syringe label providers offer an identification method for most common anesthetics along with additional choices for marking less frequently used medications.
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