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kratz
Single use Saline flush bags

The practice at our facility for intermittent antibiotics is to use a 250ml NS saline flush bag(primary tubing) and antibiotic(secondary tubing). We follow the INS guidelines in changing our tubing and bag every 24 hours. Recently our pharmacy has proposed that we change our flush bags every time we hang a new antibiotic because the flush bag is a "single use" item and therefore needs to be discarded. Does anyone else practice this? I feel this will be very costly and time consuming for nurses. I do not want to go to running the antibiotic thru the primary line without a flush bag as I feel the pt. won't get the entire dose of the medication.

lynncrni
You are correct about loosing

You are correct about loosing part of the dose when using an infusion pump. Most admin sets will hold about 20 to 30 mLS of residual drug. So flushing that set is critical. To mean, single use means that the bag is entered only once with the spike end. Proper handling of male lure end with sterile end caps after each disconnection is the standard along with changing evert 24 hours. This is the original length of time recommended for hang time for all fluid containers. But this is from the 1970's and no studies have been done to support extending this time. I don't think the bag hang time is the primary risk for contamination. That risk comes from the male lure end of set. 

Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, NPD-BC, CRNI

Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.

PO Box 10

Milner, GA 30257

Website http://www.hadawayassociates.com

Office Phone 770-358-7861

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