Current Events > My Hospital did something stupid that might cost lives (blogfaqs)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I work in Pharmacy at my hospital. There is a massive Tube system that runs through the entire hospital. We mainly use that system to quickly move drugs to different areas of the hospital. When this system goes down... it is considered an emergency situation where it must be fixed immediately no matter the time of day.

My hospital just voluntarily shut down this Tube System for at least 3 months. The baseline reasoning makes sense. If someone touches something they shouldnt and it gets tubed around the hospital... you can see how that is bad.

However... since we have no tube system, all medications must be picked up or delivered by hand. This includes emergency IVs we make. You can see how this can be a problem. We currently dont have the man power to do this for an extended period of time. Things getting around slower can cause major issues for our patients. We do have certain drugs and procedures on each floor designed for an emergency situation however, we will likely use those resources up faster because of the slowdown on drugs getting to patients.

Since we will use more of those resources, we will need to refill those resources more often which takes even more man power. This could end up being really bad over time. This came out of nowhere so no one was able to prepare for this either.

/blogfaqs

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That's dumb af, it just exposes more people

Yeah that does not bode well
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DanHaren2019 posted...

That's dumb af, it just exposes more people

yeah wouldn't running around the halls spread things faster? have to either hit the buttons on the elevator or open the door to the stairs, things are getting touched. wouldn't it have been better to continue using the tube system but use gloves and sanitize the container?

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KnightofShikari posted...

yeah wouldn't running around the halls spread things faster? have to either hit the buttons on the elevator or open the door to the stairs, things are getting touched. wouldn't it have been better to continue using the tube system but use gloves and sanitize the container?

I agree 100%


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My hospital just shut down the tube to the new RICU.
Can't they just only open the tube system to hospital areas that aren't harboring suspected COVID patients?

bobbaaay posted...

My hospital just shut down the tube to the new RICU.
Can't they just only open the tube system to hospital areas that aren't harboring suspected COVID patients?

Aren't we all suspect at this point?

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bobbaaay posted...

My hospital just shut down the tube to the new RICU.
Can't they just only open the tube system to hospital areas that aren't harboring suspected COVID patients?

Great question. I dont understand why they cant. I do have an update from my hospital though. Apparently, someone tubed a blood sample to Lab that was effected by Corona. They only bagged it in 1 ziplock. I guess you cant fully contain that virus unless you double bag it. So they had to shut it down and terminal clean all the Tubes. They said they will try to get the system back up in 48 hours which should be today. They originally told us 3 months so I guess they realized how foolish that would be.

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Interesting topic. I'm a hospital pharmacist.

Sure, in our hospital we have a tubing system that shuttles meds to all major areas of the hospital and when it goes down, then everything gets backed up. In the midst of this pandemic, we have been using our tube system normally (maybe not the best of ideas?). We also do call for non-patient transport for large volume bags and high alert/special medications that shouldn't be tubed (e.g., insulin, alteplase), but this isn't always expedient.

In the event that they shut down the system because of covid-19, I would imagine that they would have to do something like designate a tech to do a hospital wide run like every hour for medication delivery. Of course, nurses themselves can also come down to the pickup window and retrieve the meds themselves.

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Super Saiyan 3 Goku posted...

Interesting topic. I'm a hospital pharmacist.

Sure, in our hospital we have a tubing system that shuttles meds to all major areas of the hospital and when it goes down, then everything gets backed up. In the midst of this pandemic, we have been using our tube system normally (maybe not the best of ideas?). We also do call for non-patient transport for large volume bags and high alert/special medications that shouldn't be tubed (e.g., insulin, alteplase), but this isn't always expedient.

In the event that they shut down the system because of covid-19, I would imagine that they would have to do something like designate a tech to do a hospital wide run like every hour for medication delivery. Of course, nurses themselves can also come down to the pickup window and retrieve the meds themselves.

I wish it was that simple for us. They did it so abruptly that we didnt even have a chance to prepare. That and we are very short on staff as we always seem to be. Its working pretty decent for now. The problem is that we are having Techs work throughout the night just to deliver. (We are a smaller Hospital with only 1 Pharmacy) So, we dont have the resources to deliver stat meds at all times if things get busy. Thats what scares me. The odds of people dying because of this is very low but it seems that the right combination of circumstances could cause it.

I could be overreacting since they had a protocol back in the day before tubes existed so Im not sure. I do feel that I overreacted a day after posting this.

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Surely a hospital tube system should already be sanitised to a degree, coronavirus or not?

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pinky0926 posted...

Surely a hospital tube system should already be sanitised to a degree, coronavirus or not?

Well... Not as much as you think... It isnt like we sanitize the tubes regularly and we are Pharmacy... Yea... Never understood why that wasnt a thing...

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FreedomEtrtment posted...

That seems like an awful decision. Could they revert it?

It actually looks to be reverted tomorrow. Ill see when I come to work

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FreedomEtrtment posted...

Did it work?

yea we are good to go

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one hospital that i worked in that had a "functional" tube system had this hilarious habit of breaking everything in the container. i remember seeing blood samples dripping from the containers as they came out of the tubes...

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Future_Trunks posted...

What state

GA

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monkmith posted...

blood samples dripping from the containers as they came out of the tubes...

so much blood leakage everywhere.
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How do those tube systems work? Don't they work on air? Might be a horrible idea to use during a pandemic of an airborne virus

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