Heparin drip

[MyAimIsTrue, BSN]

If you have an order (based on heparin drip algorithm) to increase by 2 units/kg/hr and the current order is 8.3 units/kg/hr, is it correct to increase to 10.3 units/kg/hr and let your EHR and Alaris pump do the calculation for mL/hr?  Or must you calculate mL/hr? I had been doing it the first way, which was signed off on by two different charge nurses, but have been told by the educator that it is incorrect and that you must calculate mL/hr which then in the above scenario changed the rate to 10.25 units/kg/hr, instead of my 10.3 units/kg/hr.

As I type this out it seems absurd to me that 10.25 is more correct than 10.3 when the algorithm says to increase by 2 units/kg/hr...

Please advise!

[Sweetheart2005, ASN]

I always let the pump and EHR calculate it. Either way, our pumps only program to the tenths spot. So programming at 10.25 wouldn’t be an option. You would have to round, so either way 10.3 would be correct.

[LovingLife123]

My pump won’t do the hundredths.  I do what the EMR and algorithm say.