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Ya know a lot of ppl think pharmacists are just about putting pills in a bottle… but in all honesty in the role that I work clinically in a trauma center, I would say what sets a good pharmacist from a mediocre one is being able to catch everyone’s mistakes.
Your fellow pharmacists, techs in the pharmacy make mistakes (150 bicarb in 1/2NS?? lol) (incorrect pre packing procedures and getting kcl w an asa label)
Your docs make mistakes (2000mg q12 vanc on an esrd pt with a bmi of 45 + Zosyn 4.5 q6)
Your nurses make mistakes (y-site compatibility, missing doses, losing meds, etc)
The issue is noticing the problem and taking initiative to fix it. Unfortunately, either by ignorance, not correctly verifying, or just plain laziness can lead to sub optimal care for our patients.
It’s not easy though. I easily go through 500-1000+ orders a day, while calling doc/nurses, double checking techs and other pharmacists work. It can be stressful, and it’s easy to put blinders on and just keep hitting approve, but the pharmacists who look at that 4th 40meq kcl bag of the day for 1 patient without a lab drawn in 18 hours and calls the provider to see if maybe they want to draw a lab before the next admin. Those are the pharmacists doing a good job. This can go for the retail folks too who have to put up with way more shit than I.
Our hospital pharmacy has a white board for updates and statistics tracking that has a section called "Good Catch." Let me tell you, some of the things I've seen on that board...THANK YOU for sparing us. (KCl labeled as asa? As a critical cardiac care nurse, I am duly horrified.)
Trust me, so are we. Typically, the reason for the mislabel is due to the machine that is used for pre-packing from stock bottles. For the most case, standard meds are given their own containers for the machine, but when there was a KCL shortage going around something happened where a standard container was used for a non-standard medication and they didn't make sure the old container was cleared before adding the new medication.
That being said the pyxis pharmacist checking, should have looked at EVERY pre-packed med (100 per batch typically) and see that they all looked correct (eg: no doubles, empties), and would've seen the size mismatch between the 2 meds lol. We have some great techs though and one of them caught it as they were doing their pyxis load.
Love my crit care nurses though! We have 5 ICUs (+ ER/Trauma) and most all those nurses typically have their stuff together, which makes my job much easier, when I gotta call with questions! So, thank you for being on the ball!
I mean my second thought after sheer horror was that I'd definitely notice this baby aspirin is uhhh...a giant horsepill? That would seem very odd. But like on my end what am I supposed to do to verify, lick it? 😂
And we appreciate the shit out of you right back. The number of times we've had something going down and called pharmacy: "Hey I have a stat order for..." to be interrupted with: "It's already verified."
Seriously, thanks for everything you do for us.