Thursday, November 11, 2010

Professional Judgement a.k.a. You Are Not A Robot!

I understand that a lot of drugs have dosages that vary according to various factors, such as weight. But can we please use some professional judgement and round some doses? I saw a Lovenox prescription today for... are you ready? 99.7mg. Yes, that was 99.7mg. For those of you not in the know, Lovenox is an injectable drug that comes in a variety of strengths in prefilled syringes, among those being 80mg, 100mg, and 120mg. Now if we calculate the dose based on weight and we come up with 99.7mg, can we please use our FREAKING BRAINS and round that dose up to 100mg? How the hell is someone going to measure 99.7mg?

Or how about those Amoxicillin doses...I have seen such craziness as 6.13mL. Are you freaking kidding me? I don't think a kid is going to die of an Amoxicillin overdosage if we round it up to 6.2mL, which is a volume that can actually be somewhat accurately measured. That "extra" 0.07mL isn't going to kill anyone.

Prescribers, you are not robots! Use your judgement and try to do things that make some damn sense!

2 comments:

  1. Unusual quantities like that usually involve a calculator for a weight that is not usually the same today as it was yesterday and probably not going to be same tomorrow!

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  2. Thank you! I think this everyday that I work. Not only that, I think it should apply to telling a patient that they can't have their pain meds even if the doctor calls in to authorize a 13 day early fill or something ridiculous like that. Why do doctors want people to get addicted or sell these medications. IDK. I have added you to my blogroll, will you take a look at mine to see what you think. Thanks.

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