[Index]

4.8 PREPRINTED PHYSICIAN'S ORDERS

POLICY

All preprinted Physician's Orders must be approved by the Drugs & Therapeutics Committee and must be printed on the authorized form. All preprinted Physician's Orders are to be reviewed annually by Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. All preprinted Physician's Orders must be signed and dated by a physician before they can be initiated by nursing personnel.

PROCEDURES:

General:

All requests for preprinted Physician's Orders must be accompanied by a completed Request Form. These forms are available from Pharmacy and should be obtained by the initiator of the preprinted orders.

Physician:

1. Develops, in consultation with nursing, the desired preprinted orders.
2. Obtains required approvals as per request form.
3. Sends draft of the preprinted orders with the request form to the Director, Pharmacy.

Pharmacy:

4. Ensures the proposed preprinted Physician's Orders have been reviewed by appropriate groups.
5. Formats the orders onto the Physician's Order form and sends drafts of the orders to the initiator to ensure accuracy.
6. Takes each preprinted Physician's Order to the D&T for approval.
7. Forwards approved orders to Printing for printing of initial set of orders.

Nursing:

8. Orders preprinted orders directly from Printing after the initial set has been printed.

Printing:

9. Prints preprinted Physician's Orders only on the authorized form received from Pharmacy.
10. Keeps master copies of all orders.

Physician:

11. Individualizes orders for each patient.
12. Signs and dates all medication orders within 48 hours prior to initiation.

Pharmacy:

13. Ensures preprinted orders are reviewed annually.