How to Acquire a Standing Order/Prescription for School EpiPens?

[honeymoondiner, BSN, RN]

Hi everyone! First time posting. I am a new school RN at a STEM charter high school and new to school nursing in general (prior Med-Surg/Tele Float RN at a busy urban hospital). I just started yesterday and am trying to get organized for the year with little-to-no-guidance. I'm very excited about my new role but quite overwhelmed as this is uncharted territory for me. I'm trying to set up my own orientation with the middle school RN but she's not back from vacation yet.

Anyway, I was doing an inventory check and looking over our EpiPen supply and discovered that they expired in 2019. I am eager to get the stock replenished with new ones and discovered the EpiPen4Schools.com website - great resource. However, of course there needs to be a provider's order/prescription to proceed. I called the website's number and emailed them but have not received a response. 

I've never obtained a standing order for a school/organization before. I've reached out to the staff currently orienting (mostly admin and teachers) and no one knows who wrote the order for the outdated EpiPens - or how do I go about getting a new order/prescription (I.e. physician at a doctor's office? physician with the health department? a physician's group that does this sort of thing routinely? or try to contact the physician who's name is on the expired box of EpiPens?). Thanks in advance!

[BrisketRN, BSN, RN]

I've had luck by contacting a local allergist (check your students' allergy paperwork).  You could also call/email nearby school nurses & ask who they use.  If there is a name on the box definitely contact that doctor.  Depending on your state there may already be standard standing order paperwork for Epi Pens.  Then you can go through epipen4schools.com to get 2 boxes for free.  It sometimes takes a few weeks to get them.

[honeymoondiner, BSN, RN]

Thank you so much for sharing! Great suggestions - I will start with those! Appreciate it!

[JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN]

My school physician signs my standing orders. But the good thing about that website, is they use their own standing orders and you really just need a physician to sign off on them. If you don't have a school doc, then reach out to local offices. 

I'm also at a charter - any chance anyone on your board of trustees is an MD? They might also be willing to sign - we did that at first until I insisted we budget for and hire a pediatrician (took them 3 years to listen to me).  

[NutmeggeRN, BSN]

Sometimes you may have a parent who is a physician that will write that order. We don't have a school physician so that was the route we took. You might also try some of the chain freestanding clinics. In our area we have ClearChoiceMD and ConvenientMD and often you can set up a partnership with one of them. Also check with your State association they may be aware of some partnerships.