Rachel Phillips
My responses below are based on our workflow in the US. However, I am very confident that it can serve as a benchmark for other institutions as well. Please feel free to let me know if you have any other question or require further clarification. My answers are included below your questions.
1- what’s the standard time for preparing one iv dose ?
At our hospital, it depends on what is the medication. For non-controlled small or large volume parenteral, it may take 5 to 10 minutes. If a medication requires careful swirling or gentle shaking, it will take 25 to 45 minutes per dose. For controlled medications, it takes 10 to 15 minutes, from removing medication from our automated dispensing cabinet and preparing the dose. We are using scanning process for each step of preparation and dispensing and that is why it may take 3 to 5 minutes more than other places. However, we strongly believe on the safety aspect of scanning and have buy in from all stakeholders at the hospital.
2- what’s the benchmark for number of IV doses prepared by each technician ?
8 to 10 doses per hour
3- what’s the standard time taken by each pharmacist for verifying the physician order ( from sending fax to printing labels) ?
5 to 6 minutes to verify an order once entered by physician. This has been our average since we opened in 2015. We verify approximately 1100 orders per day or 115 to 175 orders per pharmacist per 8 hour shift.
4- what’s the standard time for checking one prepared IV dose ?
1 to 2 minutes after preparation.
Respectfully,
