Chuck DiTrapano RPh

For the infusion center nurse, not being familiar with a drug they need to prepare and administer can be a source of stress and anxiety.

This is an experience I am personally familiar with. At one point early in my career, I received an order for a drug called ELAPRASE (idursulfase). I knew nothing about this drug at that time. How do I prepare it? How is it administered? What instructions do I give the staff asking me questions? What concentration do I prepare?

The experience made me feel vulnerable and honestly pretty stressed out. I realized in that moment, that I desperately needed a quick resource to help me determine the answers to my questions about this drug and allow me to provide accurate directions to my staff.

This moment was the birth of RxWORKFLOW™ – an operationally integrated reference tool that includes the critical information and tools needed to dose, prepare, and administer any infusion drug.

In the beginning, however, I was still using my trusty handheld calculator to do the math necessary to complete the tasks at hand. I, like everyone else, have fat fingers and the vulnerability of using this tool became more and more apparent. That’s when we decided to build RxQuickCALC™, RxCALC™, and RxDoseCHECK™ and integrate them right into RxWORKFLOW™.

These drug specific calculation tools are designed to minimize user input and provide accurate calculations. This is especially important when infusion nurses need to calculate dose specific taper steps for a drug like RITUXAN (rituximab). Without a tool like this, nurses will often need to call the pharmacy (or coworker) to double check their math, then write down the taper steps on a piece of paper, and tape that paper to the IV pole where the medication is hanging—Certainly not the safest or most efficient method!

Following the premise that consistency promotes safe practices and predictable patient outcomes, we have also recently introduced enhancements to our RxCALC™ preparation and RxCALC™ administration pop up calculators.

Not only do the calculators provide the math for dose preparation, they also provide step-by-step procedural information to help ensure consistent medication preparation. This provides the nurses a consistent method of administering all drugs, especially those with some complex administration calculations such as rituximab, infliximab, or any of the immune globulins.

Our new RxCALC™ for Dose Administration follows the same format and includes many specific weight-based dose calculators that incorporate these same features. For the free standing infusion nurse, we provide a consistent procedure for preparation and help to insure the details such as needle size or filtration requirements are not forgotten.

RxWORKFLOW™ is our most popular application for good reason! When these tools are integrated into an operation’s day-to-day policies and procedures, it significantly improves patient and staff safety, efficiency, consistency and staff confidence, even for those with minimal or outdated experience. Our most successful users require the use of RxWORKFLOW™ every time a drug is dosed, prepared, and administered. Dose preparation and dose administration become a consistent step-by-step procedure insuring patient safety and clinician confidence.

Ditch that paper binder! RxWORKFLOW™ provides a cloud-based procedure manual that is always up to date with the most current information and the integrated tools like RxCALC help to ensure efficient, consistent, and successful patient outcomes. Eliminate the daunting task of establishing the proper procedures for preparation and administration of an ever-changing drug library and maintaining staff competency. Drug specific tools, procedural reference, and competency education are at the heart of what we do.