Heparin Changes
Starting next Tuesday, November 14th we will start switching two of our Heparin Products to different formats.
Heparin 10,000 unit/mL (5mL) multidose vials will be switching to single dose 1mL amps same concentation of 10,000 units/mL. For the Wardstock Techs when making the switch please consider that 5 doses were available from the multidose vial and only 1 dose from the new single dose amp so multiply the quantity given by 5. I will not be making the switch in RxTFC until Tuesday morning so on Tuesday the 5ml vials will still appear as wardstock but will be switched out of RxTFC that day. The switch will happen over the weekly top up schedule so as you come across wards over the week that carry the 5mL vials please switch them out with the amps at that time.
The other switch will be the Heparin 100 units/mL (10mL) vial to a Heparin 100 units/mL (3mL) Preloaded Syringe. Please see memo attached from Jocelyn Hill & Steve Barnes regarding this. For the wardstock Techs we again will be making the switch over the regular top up schedule next week. The CNL's were notified and suggested that at SPH the bottom drawer on the med carts could be used (where mini-bags are kept now) and at MSJ the second bottom or bottom right hand deep drawer could be used on each med cart for storing these on the "wardstock" side of the carts.
Please be aware that the Heparin Syringes look similar to the Saline syringes they have now so please make sure they are put in separate drawers. I will stock the Heparin Lock syringes today in RxTFC so the wards that will be stocking them will have them listed next week. We have tried to best estimate usage by ward but we may have to continue to adjust quotas as we figure out usage by med cart.
If you have any questions please contact myself or Steve.
Thanks,
Ian Quinn
Technician Manager
Pharmacy Department, Providence Health Care
1081 Burrard St, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6
Ph: 604-806-8185
Fax: 604-806-8154
Internal Pager: 54178
External Pager: 604-205-8602