Facility has a "needle stick" committee who made a decision to switch to vanish point syringes.
For years everyone was used to bd syringes.
The new syringes were purchased and distributed to the nursing areas.
When reviewing medication errors, the medication safety committee found a report of a pt getting 50 units insulin instead of 5 units.
The reason was a syringe mix-up.
They could not understand how someone could mix up an insulin syringe because they only carried bd u-100 insulin syringes.
They went and talked with the nurse and doctor about the mix-up.
They showed them the 2 syringes which are remarkably similar.
Both syringes are in a white wrapper when viewed from 1 side.
The old bd tuberculin syringe was in a white wrapper with blue print.
The vanishpoint tuberculin syringe is in a white wrapper with black and orange print.
The vanishpoint insulin syringe is in a white wrapper with black and orange print, although it is slightly different.
When looked at thru the clear side, the vanishpoint tuberculin syringe has a clear needle cap with an orange plunger tip.
The vanish point insulin syringe has an orange needle cap and a red plunger.
The whole key is orange.
For years, nurses used orange syringes to give insulin.
Their medication safety committee went around the hospital and warned all the nursing units of this mix-up.
Even after the warning, one of the nurses drew a dose of insulin, but thought something was wrong.
She double checked and discovered that she had the wrong syringe.
Yesterday, reporter went to do an inservice for their pharmacists and reporter needed a sample syringe to show them.
Reporter went to a nursing unit to get a few samples.
When reporter opened the drawer, the drawer contained a mixture of tuberculin and insulin syringes.
Even the boxes that the syringes come in are almost identical, they have to turn the box sideways to see "insulin" or "tuberculin".
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