A question about labels in OR

[mcmike55]

I bring a question to you all, the all-knowing, all-seeing family of allnurses.com. Sort of the internet version of the magic 8 ball!:chuckle

Any who.....in line with national pt safety standards, we have been using labels for all liquids, meds, irrigation fluids, dye, etc that are on the surgical field.

Now I am hearing that in addition to naming the med, we must also be noting the concentration as well. I understand, and basicly agree, to a point, but want to know how you all are taking care of this.

We have blank labels, and using a sterile skin marker, but the labels we have smear badly. We got some pre printed ones, but now the concentration issues has arose.

Also, do these rules also apply to our prep sets as well. Concentraion is going to be a problem. I just dilute them, no set amout, could be a problem.

Back to the blank labels, does anyone use blanks that don't smear???

Let me know if you have some input.

thanks in advance. Mike

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

We don't have blanks that don't smear. On longer cases, i get a Tegaderm opened, cut a piece of it about the size of the blank label, and put that over top of the blank label after writing on the label. Fluid rolls right off, label is smear free.

This way , good ol' Joint Commision couldn't *****.

[MissJoRN, RN]

Wow, Marie! Terrific idea! I was going to mention that sometimes steri-strips seem to hold the ink better than the labels, but I think I'll switch to the tegaderm, too!

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

I had worse luck with steristrips. They smeared worse than the labels.