The Pre-Filled Syringe ~ A Dangerous Alternative?

Nurses reported concerns associated with using the cartridges as vials. These nurses expressed concern about potential SAFETY ISSUES with this practice, including:

• Risk of contamination after entry into a medication cartridge not intended for puncture as a vial

• Risk of contamination when using single-use cartridges as multidose vials

• Risk of contamination when preparing sterile medications under conditions that might not meet standards in the US Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) Chapter <797>

• Risk of unlabeled syringes once medications have been withdrawn from the labeled, prefilled cartridges into a new unlabeled syringe

• Risk of mislabeled syringes if a drug was withdrawn from a Carpuject cartridge into a prefilled, labeled syringe of diluent (e.g., drug added to a normal saline flush cartridge)

• Risk of dosing or measurement errors when transferring medication from one syringe to another

• Risk of staff needlestick injuries

• Risk of conditions that may facilitate drug diversion of products documented as "wasted."

Nurses also shed light on some of the factors that encourage the practice of withdrawing medications from the cartridges:

• citing unavailability of syringe holders (or no awareness of their existence!),
• the desire or need to dilute medications before administration,
• and concerns about the transmission of infections from syringe holders that have not been properly cleaned.

~The survey was completed by 540 nurses, predominantly staff-level registered nurses (78%) and, to a much lesser extent, nurse managers (8%) and nurse educators (8%). Most participating nurses (87%) worked in organizations that have been using Carpuject prefilled syringe cartridges for more than 2 years

Article Source: www .medscape.com