Lisa:

We had the same problem where I worked. The State Board or some other regulatory agency came in and declared that all untreated (plain brown) cardboard boxes, not just IV boxes, were a source of dust and particulate matter and should not be kept in the IV Room specifically, and the Pharmacy in general.
It's just another crack down in the name of patient safety. We all have to grin and bear it.

Mike

Name of Facility: Summerdale Enterprises, Inc.

City, State: P

Years as a Buyer: >

We remove them. For example, we get Avelox and Cipro premix bags in cardboard boxes, we have bins for them on the shelf (plastic) so we remove them from the cardboard box and put them in the labeled bin. It keeps them separate and makes JCAHO & DFS happy be eliminating cardboard.

Name of Facility: CVMC - 270 beds

City, State: Teaching

Years as a Buyer: 1

Yes, we remove all IV bags and vials, etc. from their original boxes. There is no cardboard allowed in our IV room. We are doing this to comply with USP 797.

Name of Facility: Acute Care/320

Years as a Buyer: 23 years as a Tech/ 7 years as the Buyer

We keep no cardboard in our IV Room, but have supplement stock in another part of the department and it all stays in the original cardboard boxes.
Interestingly, we just had our REAL joint commission survey and absolutely nothing was said about too much cardboard in the dept. Are those comments at the discretion of the individual surveyers?

Everything that goes into the IV room is alcohol'd and then put away in separate bins. Like other facilities, no cardboard boxes are allowed in the IV room. We have another room on where we keep overstock and only bring down what is needed for the IV room. This is to comply with the USP 797 standards.

Name of Facility: 220

City, State: Acute care Trauma II

Years as a Buyer: 4.5

Thank-you everyone who has replied, but maybe I should have been more specific. We have our "clean room" where we mix and a seperate room where we keep our stock. The surveyor said all the stock needed removed from orig. cardboard boxes even though it's in a differant room.

Name of Facility: 150 beds

City, State: Community

Years as a Buyer: < 1yr but a tech for about 17 years

" Thank-you everyone who has replied, but maybe I should have been more specific. We have our "clean room" where we mix and a seperate room where we keep our stock. The surveyor said all the stock needed removed from orig. cardboard boxes even though it's in a differant room. "


This is how ours is set up also. We have an overstock area where we keep bags and IV supplies and they stay in there original packaging. And then we have a supply room off the IV room where we keep supplies for immediate use. We do not allow any carboard in there, everything is put into plastic bins.

Name of Facility: 220

City, State: community

Years as a Buyer: 2

Ruth - thats so funny that your real survery didn't mention it at all!

We are 797 compliant, but we also just don't keep any in the main part easier. Its just simpler to tell people "no cardboard" than "you can have it here, but not here.."

Name of Facility: CVMC - 270 beds

City, State: Teaching

Years as a Buyer: 1

since we're heading down the path to 797 our people from supply replace our cart with the usual items.
you see we have 2 carts( 1 we keep in pharmacy and one we keep in supply) this way each day after 230pm we switch out our cart for the other one with a full supply of iv bags bottles and other stuff.

Name of Facility: hospital of the univ of pa pharmacy

City, State: level 2 trauma center

Years as a Buyer: 4