Drug round

Walking the round

Select Walk this round to go patient by patient with each person's record open while you give their doses. The round travels with you as a strip showing who is done, who you are with and who is next. Done moves you on; Pass over records that you did not give it and somebody else has to. Each move is a deliberate change of patient and is recorded, so you are never giving a dose against a list instead of against a record.

Being interrupted

Put the round down at any point and the patient you are with stays open. What you have already recorded is recorded; what is left is still due, and the round can be started again from the ward.

What this does not check

This records what was ordered and what was given. It does not check interactions, allergies, doses or duplicate therapy. Those remain your checks, exactly as they were before.

The round empties as you work it

A dose leaves the list the moment it is recorded, whoever recorded it. A round that still shows a dose somebody already gave is a round that gets given twice.

A dose can only be recorded once

If a colleague records the same dose while you have it open, you are told when it was recorded and asked not to give it. That is the system working.

The patient is checked, not assumed

Before a dose is recorded as given you confirm the patient in front of you: type the number on their wristband, or the date of birth they tell you. It is checked against their chart, and a dose for the wrong patient is refused rather than written. The name on the screen is a prompt, never the proof.

The round stays current

The round is read again every thirty seconds while it is open, whenever you come back to it, and after every dose you record. A dose is also read again when you open it, so one a colleague gave a moment ago tells you before you give it.

What was ordered is on the row

Each row shows the ordered dose, the route and how often, as the prescriber wrote them. You still write what you actually gave.

Not given is a record

A dose that was not given is recorded with a reason. A blank on a chart cannot be told apart from a dose nobody charted, so there is no way to leave one blank.

Work a round

1. Choose the ward. The round opens on the ward you chose last time on this device, or on the only ward there is; otherwise it asks. Your choice is yours alone: the next person to sign in on a shared computer is asked for theirs.
2. Work down the list. The time due and how late it is are shown on every row.
3. Record each dose as you give it rather than at the end.

Record a dose as given

1. Select Record given on the row.
2. Check the patient, the medicine and the ordered dose shown at the top.
3. Confirm the patient from their wristband number or the date of birth they tell you.
4. Write the dose you actually gave, not the dose that was ordered.
5. Add a note if anything about it needs saying.

Record a dose that was not given

1. Select Not given on the row.
2. Choose why it was not given.
3. Add a note if the reason needs explaining.