warm saline/water

[maeyken]

We were recently told that when we warm our saline and water bottles for irrigation, they're only good for 48h because otherwise they will grow things. Also, the saline and water in the fridges (for transplants and MH) is only good for 48h because the plastic bottles break down.

Has anyone else heard of this? Maybe we are just really behind the times! What system do you have to ensure warmed or refrigerated bottles are used in the right time frame?

-Mae

[ewattsjt]

We just underwent changes this past fall. My facility had a group of analysis’s come in and audit us to make sure we were within The Joint Commission’s guidelines. A couple of changes that were made were that all our liquids IV or pour are now locked up to prevent tampering and if pour water or NaCl goes in the warmer, it is labeled for 2 weeks out.

IV solutions such as Dextrose or Ringers are kept for 48 hours in our warmer because they said that there is a breakdown of electrolytes when exposed to the increased temperature.

I never saw the data that reflected our change but assume it is correct.

[lilla_fjaril]

Our facility stickers the bottles with day of the week stickers just like in food service. if someone loads bottles on Monday they sticker them with Wed stickers and on Wed they have to be discarded.

[beccarner]

What temperature do you keep your IV solutions? Is my hospital going to be sited by jch if our IV solutions are never discarded until they are used??

[surgnurse1]

We had to update our fluid warmer policy within the last year as well d/t audits. They must be rotated accurately and only kept a max. of 72 hrs. The warmer is kept at a set temp(sorry don't know it off hand) and recorded daily on a log sheet. The Inner core staff sticker them with the same gun used for marking autoclave packs with the date and time. It seems to work well. I think the JACHO has a website that you can research the standards for redoing your policy. They have alot of good info on there or the AORN standards and guidelines 2009 is a good resource as well.

[beccarner]

Surgnurse1, I did just that..I wrote to JCHO and the response I got was to follow manufacturers recommendation on temperature for warmers. I think where we keep iv fluids we also keep blankets for I work in the ER now. Do you think the temp is the same for both? We aren't speaking of irrigation fluids we are refering to IV fluids to warm trauma pt's. Also could not find any new changes in AORN standards for 09 in re to this question. Maybe ewattsjt will elaborate. thanks