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Fighting COVID-19 — All hands on Deck

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Complimentary COVID-19 Preparation and Administration Resources are Now Available on RxTOOLKIT.com

RxTOOLKIT has created new interactive RxWORKFLOW for IV Safety Preparation and Administration Worksheets for the currently available COVID-19 monoclonal antibody products and you can get now them for free! Please read on to find out how.

COVID-19 has presented a significant challenge to all healthcare organizations, large and small. Maintaining appropriate staffing levels and ensuring patients have access to the necessary therapies are just a couple of examples of the issues they face.

Big problems present big challenges. Big challenges present big opportunities — Opportunities to work together, as a community, to bring about a better outcome for everyone. A viable vaccine produced in months rather than years. Treatment protocols with life saving monoclonal antibody treatments, launched in record time, utilizing the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) process. The time calls for all hands on deck.

While there is a need to expedite treatment in times like these, we can’t compromise on patient safety – And RxTOOLKIT® is here to help.

Currently the FDA has introduced three COVID-19 vaccines and three monoclonal antibody drug therapies (though one has since been revoked). RxTOOLKIT has kept abreast of the new drug launches (as well as the frequent updates that have occurred) and immediately launched RxWORKFLOW for IV Safety™ drug monographs for the monoclonal antibody drugs, as well as RxWORKFLOW for Vaccine Safety drug monographs for the approved COVID-19 vaccines. We also launched drug-specific courses to train and track ongoing staff competency for these therapies in RxTOOLKIT eLEARNING™.

In addition, collaborating with the National Infusion Center Association (NICA) and the US Department of Health and Human Services COVID-19 Monoclonal Antibodies Therapeutic Team, we have created several new RxWORKFLOW Drug Preparation and Administration Worksheets to be provided to their users and to be featured as part of our comprehensive clinician support resource, RxWORKFLOW for IV Safety.

These worksheets are designed to establish a consistent process by including automatic dose and administration calculations and step-by-step instructions for chairside/bedside administration of these new lifesaving drugs.

As industry leaders in providing tools that emphasize patient safety and the importance of a standardized process to the infusion therapy provider community, we also wanted to make certain ALL providers, clinicians, and patients could benefit from these medication safety tools.

Current RxTOOLKIT clients can access these tools once logged in by clicking the link at the top of the page for Complimentary COVID-19 Resources: RxWORKFLOW Preparation and Administration Worksheets.

If you are not a current RxTOOLKIT client, you will need to fill out a simple form in order to request your complimentary access: Click here to go directly to the Complimentary COVID-19 Resources Request Form.

It is our hope that by sharing these tools, either directly or through our strategic partnerships, and through the tireless efforts of our healthcare community, we can significantly diminish the more severe consequences of this COVID-19 virus.

For more information about RxWORKFLOW™ please contact us or check out these links:

 

Increasing Confidence with Best Practices for Infusion Therapy

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There have been so many improvements in the outpatient infusion market in recent years. The good news is that patients can now achieve a higher quality of life even when they are afflicted with a lifetime chronic condition through treatments utilizing periodic injections or infusions. If you place yourself in any patient’s shoes, what would be most important to you? Besides things like clean, comfortable surroundings, or a location close to home, my top two would be:

  1. Confidence in those rendering care.
  2. Confidence in my treatment and its safe delivery.

RxWORKFLOW for IV Safety™ was created to help infusion centers provide these important benefits to their patients.

RxWORKFLOW for IV Safety™ provides a collection of user-friendly drug specific monographs with interactive reference, tools, and procedural information designed specifically for clinicians who prepare and administer IV medications.

In every RxWORKFLOW for IV Safety™, the interactive reference (drug information) is organized in a simplified, concise format, giving any nurse the ability to find what they are looking for, within just a click or two. We include only the most important information that is commonly needed and format it for easy access.

There is a lot of information available out there, often it can feel like you are “drinking from a fire hose”, especially when it comes to drug information. If you aren’t providing concise up-to-date supporting information for your staff, how can you know where they are getting it? Clinicians often need to make critical decisions very quickly. Easy access to accurate reference can improve efficiency and staff confidence. It also eliminates guesswork based on potentially incorrect or out-of-date information.

We have also included tools in every RxWORKFLOW for IV Safety™ monograph including RxQuickCALC™, RxCALC™, and RxDoseCHECK™ to provide consistency and minimize the potential for errors in drug preparation and administration. The tools provide step-by-step instructions and are always what clinicians need for that specific drug. They establish a standardized process for preparation and administration, getting every nurse on the same page, and helping to instill best practices.

Not having support tools or an established process in place for preparation and administration tends to make clinicians inefficient and prone to error, especially when they haven’t performed a particular task in some time. It’s easy to forget or get mixed up—How does this go? Is there a filter on this? Can I use D5W as a diluent? Providing support tools can minimize mistakes and set the standard of practice for ensuring positive patient outcomes.

With knowledge comes a sense of confidence that is palpable. For a patient, being treated by a confident caregiver who they trust can provide:

  • Increased confidence in their treatment
  • Increased confidence in the staff and organization
  • Satisfaction that they chose their caregivers correctly
  • Reduction in potential for treatment failures
  • Lowered potential for side effects

Many of the highest risk medications are delivered by IV infusion. In fact, 61 percent of the most serious and life-threatening potential adverse drug events are IV drug related.1 IV drug administration often results in the most serious outcomes of medication errors.2

Many patient safety and professional organizations now strongly recommend IV preparation and administration process standardization especially for vulnerable populations or high-risk drugs. Standardization and training become even more critical when you combine multiple drugs, staff members, and/or clinic locations.

In the Chronic Care Infusion setting, it is especially important to establish consistency and make sure the dose is appropriate for the patient weight or age range. Often, the person preparing or administering a medication may have limited experience or the drug may have complex requirements, be high-risk or expensive.

RxWORKFLOW for IV Safety™ gives every clinician the information and ability to safely prepare and administer any drug in our library with confidence.

RxWORKFLOW for IV Safety™ makes it easy to provide drug-specific support ­for your staff including standardized reference, tools, and procedural information. By doing so, your practice can reap the many benefits: minimize the risk for errors, increase patient and caregiver safety, provide cost savings, establish best practices, and of course, increase both patient and caregiver confidence.

For more information about this awesome tool, check out this short video, contact us, or visit RxTOOLKIT.com.

[1–2]: http://www.hqinstitute.org/highriskmed (sdpsc_safe_administration_of_high-risk_iv_medication.pdf):[1] Communication with D.W. Bates, M.D., M.Sc. of Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, October, 2001. [2] Hicks, RW, Cousins, DD, Williams, RL. (2003). Summary of Information Submitted to MEDMARX® in the Year 2002. The Quest for Quality. Rockville, MD: USP Center for the Advancement of Patient Safety.

Ensuring Drug Specific Competency for Infusion Center Clinicians

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As with any occupation, there’s a lot to know in order to become a competent and proficient professional. Healthcare is no different. Based on your specific discipline, be it pharmacy, nursing, or physician, there are skills and tasks that are essential to the successful completion of your responsibilities.

For infusion center clinicians, the most essential information is undoubtedly in-depth drug knowledge. That includes knowledge of: drug preparation, drug administration, patient response(s) to drugs, and what to do in the event of an adverse patient reaction. In an article published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology[1], Jeffrey K. Aronson explains the following (as it relates to medication errors):

Errors are first broken down into two separate categories:

1. Mistakes
2. Skill-based errors

Mistakes are then divided into two categories:

1. Knowledge based errors
2. Rule-based errors

Skill-based errors are divided into two categories as well:

1. Action based errors (slips)
2. Memory based errors (lapses)

What does this mean to the infusion center clinician?

To prevent both rule-based and action-based errors, we recommend utilizing RxTOOLKIT’s RxWORKFLOW for IV Safety™. These user-friendly drug specific monographs provide interactive reference, tools, and procedural information, right where every clinician really needs them, at the point of care. Within each drug specific monograph, the “rules” for drug preparation and administration are presented in an easy to follow format that guides the clinician through a safe and consistent process.

RxWORKFLOW for IV Safety also helps to prevent “slips” by providing drug specific on-the-spot tools that assist in preparation or administration (RxQuickCALC™, RxCALC™, and RxDoseCHECK™). These tools are always what you need for that specific drug and include step-by-step instructions, tapering tables, and automated calculations helping clinicians to avoid an action based error.

So how do you address Knowledge and Memory Based Errors?

Let’s start with Knowledge Based Errors.

RxTOOLKIT provides a Drug Specific Competency Tracking Program in our popular LMS platform, RxTOOLKIT eLEARNING. Drug Specific Competency Tracking is an ongoing program that was built specifically for training, certification, and tracking of drug knowledge. The program provides drug specific courses with interactive assignments and competency exams. Clinicians can retake the courses periodically whenever their certification expires (as determined by your organization). This program enables clinicians (and their managers) to verify that their drug knowledge is complete and up to date.

To help with Memory Based Errors, which the author describes as “lapses”, we return to the point of care, right inside every RxWORKFLOW for IV Safety monograph, where clinicians find up-to-date, standardized, and easily “scanable” reference help to ensure your staff is familiar with both a drug and related dosing parameters. It’s easy to find a fast answer, there’s even a Quick Summary section, consolidating drug specific tools and providing quick reference, helping to confirm the necessary parameters and increasing caregiver confidence.

RxTOOLKIT’s goal is to provide the infusion center clinician a single source of standardized reference, tools, and training. We can help any center to establish standardization in practice and staff training and ensure their positive patient outcomes.

For more information about these two awesome tools, RxWORKFLOW for IV Safety and Drug Specific Competency Tracking, check out these short videos, contact us, or visit RxTOOLKIT.com.

 

 

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2723196/pdf/bcp0067-0599.pdf

Minimizing Risk with Standardized IV Care for the Infusion Center

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In recent years there has been a plethora of new infusion and injection therapies flooding the healthcare market. These new therapies are giving patients with chronic illnesses a broader range of treatment options and providing them the opportunity to live their lives with fewer debilitating chronic symptoms.

As an Infusion Center Nurse Manager, with over 25 years of nursing experience, I find the surge of new treatment options to be mind blowing. I still remember when new drugs seemed to take years in development. They would go through a lengthy approval process, including clinical trials, before a new therapy would be released to market and finally become available for patients.

Currently, the speed at which new infusion/injection drugs are approved, gives nurses little time to research and learn the important care points of preparation, administration, patient response to therapy, and patient assessment.

In addition, the days of learning nursing from our more seasoned nurses, thru tradition, and one-on-one training are dwindling fast. We are all out there on the front lines learning together. This makes the availability of reliable evidence based resources more important than ever.

RxTOOLKIT’s RxWORKFLOW™ for IV Safety is answering the call for those concise care points we nurses need in order to provide evidence based care safely and efficiently for our patients.

I have found RxWORKFLOW™ for IV Safety to be convenient and easy to use, providing the information nurses need, right when they need it! It prepares us to provide patients the best quality care:

  • Evidence based processes with quick links to resources ensure the information is credible, reliable, and up-to-date
  • Step-by-step instructions (including recommendations for all equipment needed) help me to prepare and administer the latest infusion/injection therapies
  • Having fast access to trustworthy and comprehensive information gives me confidence that I will do it right for my patients
  • Pop-up calculators ensure that calculations are done correctly and fall within accepted parameters for the drug

Before RxWORKFLOW™ for IV Safety, my nursing colleagues and I adopted fragmented processes to provide safe patient care:

  • Finding the time to research reliable information and learn the administration and preparation for IV medications was always challenging
  • We would carry index cards and pocket notes to help remember the key care points for many IV medications prescribed for patients
  • Keeping a paper binder up to date with all the requirements for each drug regimen was a constant struggle
  • We often sought the help of a colleague with experience in preparing and administering a drug that was new to us
  • Those of us not confident with math skills (myself included!) would often track down another nurse to double check any drug calculations

These fragmented, inconsistent processes lead to wasted time, distractions, and exponentially increased the risk for medication errors.

Many of the highest risk medications are delivered by IV infusion. In fact, 61 percent of the most serious and life-threatening potential adverse drug events are IV drug related.1 IV administration often results in the most serious outcomes of medication errors.2

The development of evidence based practices and standards of care are vital for successful outcomes in outpatient infusion centers. Training staff and keeping them up-to-date on the established guidelines is also imperative for success. RxWORKFLOW™ for IV Safety provides assurance that I have the right information and that I can provide proper training to maintain safety and quality care for my nurses and patients.

Please contact info@RxTOOLKIT.com or visit IVSafety.RxTOOLKIT.com for more information.

[1-2]: http://www.hqinstitute.org/highriskmed (sdpsc_safe_administration_of_high-risk_iv_medication.pdf):[1] Communication with D.W. Bates, M.D., M.Sc. of Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, October, 2001. [2] Hicks, RW, Cousins, DD, Williams, RL. (2003). Summary of Information Submitted to MEDMARX® in the Year 2002. The Quest for Quality. Rockville, MD: USP Center for the Advancement of Patient Safety.