Infusion concentrations to be standardized

Asante soon will transition to the recently released American Society of Hospital Pharmacists initiative called Standardize 4 Safety.

Our initial focus will be on standardizing concentrations of pediatric and adult continuous infusions. As Asante aims to standardize all concentrations according to the recommendations, we will focus first on adult epinephrine infusions and updating from 8 and 16 mcg/mL to 20 and 40 mcg/mL concentration. Pediatrics will update to 20 mcg/mL and neonates will continue at 10 mcg/mL and 40 mcg/mL as they already meet the standard.

This should greatly reduce fluid overload that may be seen in certain populations as well as reduce pharmacy and nursing time compounding and hanging new infusions.

ASHP’s Standardize 4 Safety initiative was supported by funding from the FDA’s Safe Use Initiative. This is the first national, interprofessional effort to standardize medication concentrations to reduce errors, especially during transitions of care.

Standards have also been created for oral liquids, patient-controlled analgesia PCAs, and epidurals and will be evaluated in future stages of this project. Asante will be doing its part in reducing the potential for errors by collaborating with colleagues from other health care systems around the state to ensure safer transitions of care.