We also only allow verbal orders in case of emergency. For things to happen in the future, we have the ability to make it a "future order", which then gets pulled in to encounters until it is time for the order to happen. We use this for the subsequent doses of some vaccines that are not routine, for the second and third doses of Bicillin for Syphilis treatment, etc. It took a while to get the team used to this - the clinicians wanted the staff to abstract the order from the progress note when we first started using EHR, but it is finally institutionalized.
I like to remind staff that they can't go through all of the checks and all of the rights of medication administration unless they have an order to compare it to.
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Lisa Duncan, DNP, MBA, RN, AMB-BC, CIC, NEA-BC
VP, Regulatory and Compliance
Family Health Centers of San Diego
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