Effect on Work Interruptions At the time of writing, in late 2009, this system had been in use in the oncology pharmacy of our hospital for 28 months, and a total of 51 278 images had been obtained on 467 workdays. Assuming that every picture represented one less interruption, and given the standard 8-h workday [...]
Continue reading " Asynchronous Validation and Documentation: RESULTS "
SoftwareA pharmacist with appropriate training and knowledge designed and wrote an image-capture program with USB foot- pedal support. The software was connected to the camera’s web server and displayed the current video feed on an embedded web page. When the pedal was depressed, the program captured a high-resolution still (1600 x 1600 pixels) of the [...]
Continue reading " Asynchronous Validation and Documentation: DESCRIPTION OF SYSTEM part 2 "
Camera and Lens We selected IQeye 702 cameras (IQinVision, San Juan Capistrano, California) with 2-megapixel resolution. These cameras use technology compliant with IEEE 802.3AF Power- over-Ethernet standards. As such, power for the cameras comes directly through the Ethernet cable that connects them to the computer network, which reduces the need for additional wires. The cameras [...]
Continue reading " Asynchronous Validation and Documentation: DESCRIPTION OF SYSTEM "
Because the primary objective of this project was to minimize interruptions, information captured by the camera system had to be accessible in a time-delayed fashion so that pharmacy technicians would not have to wait for the pharmacists’ verification to continue their work and so that pharmacists could complete, without distraction, any tasks already in progress. [...]
Continue reading " Asynchronous Validation and Documentation: METHODS "
INTRODUCTION The US Pharmacopeial Convention published the USP <797> Guidebook to Pharmaceutical Compounding— Sterile Preparations in 2008. This publication, which is based on the USP Revised General Chapter <797>, sets practice standards to help ensure that compounded sterile preparations are of high quality. Although these guidelines have not yet been enforced by the Quebec regulatory [...]
Continue reading " Asynchronous Validation and Documentation "
Overall, during the year 2007, the ACTH stimulation test was ordered for an inappropriate indication more often than for an appropriate indication (27 times versus 8 times, respectively). The majority of tests with an inappropriate indication were for septic shock unresponsive to fluid and inotropes (15/27). This result was expected, as most of the literature before [...]
Continue reading " Appropriateness of Adrenocorticotropic Hormone Stimulation Test: DISCUSSION "
There were 586 admissions to the ICU during the study period. A total of 35 ACTH stimulation tests had been performed for 32 patients, with 2 patients receiving the test more than once. Of the 35 tests performed, only 8 (23%) were classified as having an appropriate indication (Table 1); the remaining 27 (77%) were [...]
Continue reading " Appropriateness of Adrenocorticotropic Hormone Stimulation Test: RESULTS "
