Often counterchecked so mistakes very rarely reach patients. Occasionally the checking mechanism by pharmacy fails, with incidents of giving very wrong dosages to patients, and the burden falls on the prescriber. Nonetheless these good practices will prevent one from going back and forth which drains time and energy.
- Fluids (e.g. Gelofusine, Normal Saline): Always specify rate and number of doses.
- Always specify the number of doses for electrolytes.
- Go slow for giving sodium.
- Fill the form from left to right — changing something on the right side often resets the left side and wastes time.
- Use templates whenever possible:
Much faster than typing manually (e.g. use the IVF tab instead of typing “dextrose”).
Templates can sometimes be wrong:
Example: Calcium gluconate for hyperkalemia is usually 30ml, not 10ml in many old department templates. - After prescribing, close the IPMOE tab/window immediately.
- Leaving it open prevents nurses from prescribing and may result in extra calls.
- If the CMS session times out while IPMOE is open, the session may lock. Then that requires manual release of the session by nurse using the HN code.
- STAT a dose for drugs that need to be prescribed now. e.g. prednisolone for asthmatic / COPD attacks, antibiotics.