age and administer the drugs immediately rather than drawing up
medications and labeling syringes manually or with a syringe label
printer. But don't let price dissuade you. It could be a cost-neutral
proposition when you consider that:
• You'll waste less medication. You'll waste fewer drugs when you
use prefilled syringes, studies show, especially in emergency medica-
tions such as atropine and phenylephrine, as well as succinylcholine.
If your anesthesiologists draw up medicines for emergent situations
and don't administer them within the hour, they must discard them. At
least they should.
Let's say your anesthesia providers prepare 20 syringes with lidocaine,
epinephrine and sodium bicarbonate for local cases, but only use 10
within 12 hours. "Any drug that's drawn up in a syringe and not immedi-
ately administered must be labeled with the name of the drug, the con-
centration or amount, and the expiration date if it's not going to be
administered in the next 24 hours," says Phenelle Segal, RN, CIC,
FAPIC, the president of Infection Control Consulting Services. Prefilled
syringes of lidocaine, on the other hand, remain safe to use for up to 4
weeks, according to a study in Dermatologic Surgery.
Further, premixed syringes come in common dosage amounts so
you'll waste less. Keep in mind, however, that some prefilled drugs
have shorter beyond-use dating — most often a 30- to 90-day expira-
tion date, whereas a vial from the manufacturer can last much longer.
Lastly, a prefilled syringe's color-coded, tamper-evident cap lets you
safely use it on another patient if for whatever reason you didn't use it
during the case you'd planned.
• You'll save on medication supplies. It might not seem like much,
but imagine not having to stock as many alcohol swabs, syringes and
needles.
• You'll cut down on medication errors. Researchers have found
7 6 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 9
