facility needs to pull it from your stock. Wouldn't it be nice to know
exactly how many syringes from that specific lot you have and where
they are in your inventory? Take that one step further — what if you
could identify every patient who had already received the dextrose
injection and inform them that the lot is being recalled?
You can. In the past few years, some compounders have started pro-
ducing prefilled syringes equipped with a radio frequency identifica-
tion (RFID) tag on the syringe's label. You load the tagged syringes
onto a medication tray and scan each tray with an accompanying
RFID scanning system. In about 5 seconds, the system reads each
RFID tag and uploads that information to special computer software.
The software tracks information about each syringe, says John
Karwoski, RPh, founder of JDJ Consulting in Wenonah, N.J. That
information includes everything from the syringe's lot number to its
expiration date.
If you get notified about a recall, the software can quickly tell you
which syringes are from the affected lot and in which tray they're
being stored. There's also a possibility that, as the technology devel-
ops, it will be able tell you which patients the syringes were used on,
so you can alert them as well.
An added bonus: The software can alert you when the expiration
date for a syringe is approaching, says Mr. Karwoski. "(Facilities) can
determine which syringes' dates are coming due in their databanks,"
he says.
2. Barcode scanning
For facilities that don't have the computer software capable of read-
ing RFID tags, there's an easier, more basic method of tracking pre-
filled syringes: barcode scanning.
Drug manufacturers assign individual barcodes to each prefilled
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