Labeling

PharMEDium is focused on labeling strategies and innovations to help enhance patient safety. 

For the operating room syringe platform, PharMEDium uses ASTM color differentiation endorsed by the ASA, by drug class and a patented syringe label design offered only on PharMEDium compounded anesthesia syringe preparations.  Labeling includes:  dual-drug name band, vertical drug name stripe, reverse print, TALLman lettering to differentiate each drug resulting in the drug name appearing six times on the label, tamper-evident packaging, and compliance with Joint Commission Patient Safety Goal NPSG.03.04.01 for labeling of all medications used in the peri-operative environment.  For the intensive care platform, PharMEDium uses TALLman lettering and color to differentiate look alike, sound alike drugs, shapes to help clinicians differentiate drug and drug concentrations, and a distinctive statement to support the right route of administration, one of the “5 rights of safe medication administration.”

PharMEDium creates unique labeling systems and continually enhances labels by accommodating bar code placement to facilitate smart pump technology and stating drug name on a separate line of text from drug concentration.  Labels use shapes to differentiate drug families, eliminate “Total Dose” in favor of “mg or mcg per mL” concentration, express concentration as “mg or mcg per mL” instead of a slash “/”, and improve readability by using block style font.  Reverse print (white font, black background) is used and attention is given to improving the use of existing space and adding more “white” space.  PharMEDium labeling also includes administration warning statements and adds a "patient second" identifier: patient name and birth date, etc. 

Patented safety labels minimize the chance of drug administration errors potentially resulting in harm to patients. One version of the safety label displays the drug name in three different orientations, the drug concentration, variable information and gradation viewing, each different from the other, which enables a user to readily see the drug name regardless of the drug container’s position and orientation.