EXPIRATION

[Arkymedic]

Our inventory here is rather tedious, much of it busy work, especially with the amazing amount of extra items on our overstocked rigs and the requirement of writing down expiration dates of all drugs every day whether or not there were calls the previous day or that its the 20th of the month and everything that expired was removed 20 days ago... it can take 1hr+ toy inventory a rig.

Recently, we were asked to check expiration dates on anything we could find a date on.

We are now replacing angios, ET tubes, ET stylets, NPAs, OPAs, syringes, etc etc that are "expired." Many question this as some of these items in our stocks simply have no expiration dates (probably because they really don't need them). (angios I can see)

Does your service repalce these when they "expire"? Why/Why not?

We do replace them and everything that has expired pretty much goes to the local college EMS program for training use. We learned a lot on our last inspection. For instance a lot of IV start kits now place the expiration date on the inside of the package making it damn near impossible to see. Our state is getting so picky that we had to take our OPA and NPA kits apart and each one has to be in a seperate package or bag. We also had some people that would open up some items (such as combitubes) to make them quicker to get into and they were $$ and had to be removed from service due to packaging not being intact and the sterility compromised.

 

[VentMedic]

You don't want to get caught with expired stuff during a state inspection nor do you want to be caught with using expired devices that could ultimately affect the patient. Ex. expired ETT where the cuff has a slow leak and the pt must undergo another intubation

After we sort out anything that is expired; ETTs, heat packs, catheters, needles, dressings, bandages, non medicated fluids,etc, they get tallied (tax purposes) and donated to animal rescue agencies. Vet offices must follow the same standards as human medical facilities as far as quality control but do know of rescue agencies that can use these items. Incidents such as the oil spill by San Francisco a couple weeks ago and their massive cleanup of wildlife required a large amount of supplies for the hundreds of birds and other animals rescued.

Occasionally a "human rescue" team that provides services may ask for our donations for third world countries where the FDA can't control. This is assuming our administration have checked their legitimacy and the supplies are shipped under the guidelines of the law.

 

[Summit]

Amazing resurrection of a 2 year old thread!