Standardised drug labelling in intensive care: results of an international survey among ESICM members

Abstract

Standardised DSL is not widely applied in European and non-European ICUs and mostly does not adhere strictly to the ISO norm. The frequency and quality of DSL differs to a great extent among European regions. This leaves much room for improvement.

Sedation practice in Nordic and non‐Nordic ICUs: a European survey

“…However, we found only few significant variations among these groups. As in similar studies, we found strong regional differences within Europe, which is a threat to external validity as findings cannot be generalized to all countries surveyed (Balzer et al ., ). The self‐report nature of the survey means that we were unable to control for selection bias.…”

Intravenous therapy device labeling in Intensive Care Units: an integrative review

“…Regarding the evidence about lack of standardization, in S5 ( 14 ) , 29.6% of participants mentioned that there is no standard practice where they work in relation to IV-line labeling. This result was repeated in S4 ( 19 ) in relation to syringes, when only 39% reported that standardized medication labeling on the syringe was used in the ICU where they work and 30% of participants reported using ISO 26825 (in its original form). In S6 ( 20 ) , there was a lower degree of variability in labeling practice among the ICUs of the institutions studied in Australia and New Zealand, particularly for syringes and saline solution bags, which should be made with color code and with the medication name handwritten.…”

Year in review in Intensive Care Medicine 2012. II: Pneumonia and infection, sepsis, coagulation, hemodynamics, cardiovascular and microcirculation, critical care organization, imaging, ethics and legal issues

“…ISO norm 26825 for color drug labelling has been created in anesthesiology and extended for use in intensive care and emergency medicine. In a survey endorsed by ESICM, Balzer et al [67] found that only 35 % of the respondents reported that standardized drug labelling was used hospital-wide, and 39 % reported that standardized drug syringe labelling (DSL) was used in their ICU (Europe: Northern 53 %, Western 52 %, Eastern 17 %, Southern 22 %). The ISO norm 26825 was used by 30 %, an adapted version by 19 %, and local versions by 45 %.…”