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Reduce Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) Involving Intravenous Medications:
Limit the Number of Floor Stock Intravenous Solutions

To reduce the chance of errors in selection of the appropriate solution that could lead to errors in intravenous administration of medications, keep the number of intravenous solutions available on patient care units to a minimum. A reliable system for dispensing and delivering solutions from the pharmacy will eliminate the need for many floor stock items. Only those few solutions that are commonly needed quickly or in emergencies should be in routine stock, and the supplies of those should be minimal.


Tips
  • Review periodically the intravenous solutions each unit uses, to ensure that the floor stock items meet current needs.
  • Customize the floor stock for the patient population on that unit.
  • Ensure that administering staff members record in the medication administration record any intravenous solutions that they administer from the floor stock.