Controlled Drug Vials in Pyxis

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I am frustrated with this. Is it hard for you to count drug vials like versed and fentanyl? Our pharmacy places 25-30 vials of things like versed, fentanyl, and morphine in a drawer without any type of organization. When you need something quickly, the count really takes too much time. Wondering if anyone has a solution to this problem?

Thanks

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

Ours are placed in the drawers in clear plastic ziplock bags. Each bag has 10 vials with a seal on the bag itself. Only 1 bag is supposed to be opened at a time. Instead of having to count vials, we can grab each bag, make sure there are 10 in the sealed ones and then count the unsealed bag.

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Specializes in Peds, Med-Surg, Disaster Nsg, Parish Nsg.

Moved to Patient Medications forum.

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Specializes in PACU, pre/postoperative, ortho.

Our pharmacy stocks those meds in smaller pockets & typically have no more than 10 to count. In pre-op where we use lots of versed, there are usually at least 3 pockets stocked, so we have a good supply but only have to count the few in a single pocket when we pull the med.

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All of ours are separated in the Pyxis. What irks me is when we have multiple patients on one med and they stock like 6 vials and then we have to go to other floors/units to pull because our Pyxis is not adequately stocked.

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Would something like this organizing be useful. I have been working on designing a solution and used my 3D printer to created the tray.

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Specializes in PICU, Sedation/Radiology, PACU.

I can only see this being a good solution if your PAR is no more than 18 vials. For 20-30 vials, you're still going to run into the same issue.

My unit does the same as RubyVee. Ziplock bags with 10 each and then one bag with the remainder. It's quick and simple to count the vials within a bag.

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We also do bags with ten in each. Of course you always have at least one person that opens up two bags lol.

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We also do bags with ten in each. Of course you always have at least one person that opens up two bags lol.

I hate that guy.

I like the baggie idea though. Our morphine comes in the tubex containers, and are bundled 5 by the manufacturer. Fentanyl is set up in the drawer so only one is available at a time. Dilaudid and Versed are multiple vials thrown in the drawer. I will need to talk to our pharmacist about sealed baggies for those.

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