standing orders in your hospital

[esrun00]

I work in a small community hospital. Currently we have no standing orders, so if a patient developes a fever and has no order for Tylenol (and it does happen), we have to call physician at 2am for an order. I am trying to come up with a list of standing orders to present to the medical committee to have approved for standing orders (for adults). If anyone has any suggestions, it would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Kristy

[zacarias, ASN, RN]

Standing orders are good, but like people have said, you have to be very cautious. For instance a lot of antacids are contraindicated for renal patients and thus a blanket standing order may or may not be appropriate.

Tylenol is hardly a benign drug and while generally is better than any other pain med, it still should be cautiously used.

The best standing order in my opinion is an "order set" of lab/meds that nursing can order but the set is initially checked of the by the doc. So he knows that the meds/labs on that set possibly could be given/ordered during that patient's admission.

[jetsetter]

I think I found it . Xeroform!