Creatinine clearance & antibiotics..help?

[BlindFaithLPN]

Ok so I'm a fairly new nurse. Once I had to call the pharmacy for a creatinine clearance level on a resident who was being placed on Bactrim. I dont recall learning anything about this in school, and it was mentioned in our last nurses meeting. I'm not sure I understand checking the creatinine clearance level, and do they check this level everytime a resident in LTC facility is placed on an antibiotic? Any help to clear this up would greatly be appreciated..thanks!

[CynicallyVexed]

they only check it depending on the strength of the antibotic and the strand of bacteria the resident is fighting.. Also as well if the doc writes Pharmacy to dose then pharmacy will check a recent BMP and creatine levels... And any drug that requires Peak & Troughs like vanco, gentamycin, tobra... ect., they will ask for a recent labs.

The only bad thing about this in a LTC facility is that these labs are never up to date, you will be lucky find a recent BMP on a resident that's not older than 6 months. In a hospital setting they send for stat labs and pharmacy will look them up and write the dose amount without bothering you.

[Michigan]

FYI. In my building, cited by state because we did not have current Creat. levels for RS receiving ATB. Now whenever an ATB is ordered a new level is drawn and dosage adjusted according.