Best Practice #22 FAQ

Best Practice #22: Safeguard against error with vaccines administered in the inpatient and associated outpatient settings.

1. Question: The Best Practice says to use barcode scanning to verify correct vaccine "and dose," how would scanning catch a wrong dose (e.g., if the wrong volume was measured)?

Answer: Correct dose was included because there are situations where a scan could also verify the correct dose, such as when a syringe or vial contains the exact dose for a patient. ISMP recognizes that when practitioners need to remove a dose from a multi-dose vaccine vial or a vial that contains more than the patient-specific dose, a scan of the barcode will not be able to verify that the correct volume has been removed.  

^{Rev. 1/10/2024}