Pharmacy tips alert prescribers to common medication ordering challenges and solutions.
Dose Rounding and Banding
Challenge: When prescribing certain medications, or for certain age groups, clinicians may find limited options for specifying a medication dose and wonder what the constraints are about or how to overcome them if clinically justified.
Context: Medication order composers can help prescribers by reflecting how pharmacies and/or medication administrators must work with medication preparations.
Context: Medication order composers can help prescribers by reflecting how pharmacies and/or medication administrators must work with medication preparations.
- Dose rounding may be imposed to ensure a that a practically measurable drug dose (considering equipment available to nursing) can be prepared and administered. Rounding constraints cannot be overridden, however choosing a different product/concentration may help.
- Dose banding guides, when present, reflect how some products are supplied and used when weight-adjustments are needed (e.g., mg/kg). Banding guides can be overridden.
Solution: Prescribers who need to override dose banding guides can order the desired medication as discrete dosing units (e.g., mg).
