Patient Safety News
December 2022
Re-Hanging Lead Aprons
REMINDER: Please re-hang lead aprons when you are finished using them. Once they have been bent and folded, they can develop holes. Aprons have been left on the floor and on chairs by providers, leaving nurses and techs to clean up after them.
Duplicate Orders
Instances of providers entering duplicate orders AND overriding warnings about the issue have been noted. This has occurred with people within our own department as well as people outside of the department (this is especially true for preop medications).
Check your patient’s “Sign & Held” orders prior to placing preop and postop orders. If you get warnings, please review them carefully.
Anesthesia Techs are not secret ISD people – Dont expect them to fix your IT issues!
Medication Safety and Computer Policies
A brief reminder of three important points related to medication and computer guidelines/policies:
- Medications cannot be left unattended (Point #7 in the Guidelines for our department linked below)
- The only exceptions to this policy are vasoactive infusions on infusion pumps, for short periods of time
- Scrub every injection hub with alcohol for at least 5 seconds prior to accessing
- You must logout from Epic if you leave the computer
UNC Department of Anesthesiology
Clinical Practice Guidelines: Medication Safety
OR-ICU Handoffs
Please see new OR ICU Handoff tools linked below.
Adult NPO Guidelines in Patients with Enteral Access
The following new guidelines will apply to patients with the following
SECURED airway: cuffed endotracheal tube or cuffed tracheostomy tube
Post-Pyloric Access
↓
Continue TF on call to OR
↓
Hold TF on call to OR if patient is undergoing aero-digestive surgery, will be in the prone position or extubated postop
Gastric Access
↓
Hold TF on call to OR
↓
Hold TF 6 hours prior to OR time if patient is undergoing aero-digestive surgery, will be in the prone position or extubated postop
The following new guidelines will apply to patients WITHOUT secured airways
Post-Pyloric Access
↓
HOLD TF on call to OR
Gastric Access
↓
Hold TF 6 hours prior to OR time
NPO Guidelines Algorithm Clinical Practice Guidelines
Drug Shortages – December 2022
Drug Shortage information can be found on the PSQI SharePoint site.
Questions or concerns? greg_balfanz@med.unc.edu
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Send your updates to mark_postlethwaite@med.unc.edu
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