PMU84 TARGETED LITERATURE REVIEW OF TIME UTILIZATION ASSOCIATED WITH THE USE OF PREFILLED SYRINGES VERSUS CONVENTIONAL SYRINGES

Abstract

Conventional syringes used for medication administration require more steps to prepare compared to prefilled syringes (PFS). The purpose of this study is to quantify time savings with the use of PFS over conventional vials and syringes in a hospital setting. A targeted literature review was conducted in PubMed and Embase databases using search terms related to PFS, conventional syringes, vials, and time. The search was limited to studies involving human participants, published in a peer-reviewed journal between 2001 and 2018. A study qualified for inclusion if it reported preparation time of hospital injectable medications (including acute care drugs and biologics) with PFS and conventional method. A total of six studies qualified for inclusion. All studies found that PFS are associated with faster preparation times compared to conventional syringes. Reductions in mean preparation times ranged from 27.0%-58.9% (for anesthesia and biologics) with the use of PFS, mostly due to fewer preparation steps. In the case of anesthesiology drugs, a study reported that it takes an average of ∼1 minute for hospital pharmacies to conventionally prepare one anesthesia syringe, with another study reporting that 200 syringes of anesthesia are prepared by hospital pharmacy over 5 weeks. Extrapolating this data for one year, utilization of PFS may allow pharmacies to save 562 to 1,225 minutes in preparation time annually. In addition to anesthesiology drugs, time savings realized from other drugs such as biologics can further increase the annual time savings associated with drug preparation. The use of PFS results in time savings when compared to conventional method. Additionally, using PFS may have patient safety implications such as fewer delays to treatments, a crucial factor in emergent cases, and fewer medication errors. Time saved in medication preparation may allow healthcare workers to dedicate more time towards higher value tasks such as direct patient care.