Think Pink! – Time to review IV antibiotics
December 18, 2018
In September, data from a pharmacy snapshot survey showed that 21 per cent of our inpatient population was on an IV antibiotic, and over half of the patients on antibiotics were on an IV antibiotic for more than 48 hours.
Think Pink! is a new initiative from the pharmacy department to raise awareness of IV antibiotics and prompt a review to see if they are still needed. Think Pink looks to engage nursing and medical colleagues in helping to ensure that IV antibiotics are only used when required.
IV antibiotics are vital, life saving medicines but we overuse them, and give them to patients for many days, when they could take an oral equivalent, usually because we forget to review if they are still needed.
As part of Think Pink pharmacy colleagues will use pink highlighters to draw attention to patients who have had 48 hours of IV antibiotics. We hope that nursing colleagues who are signing an administration box on the drug chart which has been highlighted in pink, will then ask the medical team to review the need for the IV antibiotic to continue.
IV antibiotics are also usually at least 10-20 times more expensive than their oral equivalent, are much less convenient, and take up a huge amount of nursing time to prepare and administer – time that could be better spent on other aspects of patient care.
If we could encourage an environment where everyone involved in the patient’s care (nursing, medical and pharmacy staff) feels empowered to ask – ‘Do they still need IV antibiotics?’, we could improve safety, save time, money and most of all improve patient care all at the same time.
If you would like to find out more about the Think Pink campaign, you can read more in the below briefing.
If you have any questions, please contact Conor Jamieson – Pharmacy Team Leader – Antimicrobial Therapy, conor.jamieson@nhs.net.