They also offer sev-
eral other advantages.
By essentially elimi-
nating the need for
needle syringes, they
can eliminate acciden-
tal needle sticks and
prevent certain unsafe
injection practices,
like reusing syringes.
They're more expen-
sive, but they can save
money by decreasing
wastage and by main-
taining their sterility
longer than other
preparations.
4. Barcode scan-
ning. To prevent
syringe swap, you also
need other, more
sophisticated solutions. The only way to be sure you won't pick up
the wrong syringe is to build in some kind of engineering system that
prevents you from doing so, such as mandatory barcode scanning
before drug administration. EHRs that require you to scan the bar-
code on the syringe label before you can enter the information help
prevent syringe swap. You can't just mindlessly pick up a syringe. You
have to stop, and look at its label. And what you enter has to match
what pops up on the computer. There's an added benefit to such a sys-
2 2 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U L Y 2 0 1 8
• SWITCH Even correctly labeled syringes can be mixed up at the time of adminis-
tration.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN,
CNOR
