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When intravenous medications are involved in adverse drug events, their harmful effects may occur more rapidly, and be more severe than errors with oral medications. This is due to the direct administration into the bloodstream.
The average adult has about 21 square feet of skin.
More than 34,000 trademarked medication names and more than 10,000 generic medication names are in use in the United States.
Though newer “smart” infusion pumps are increasingly becoming more sophisticated, they cannot prevent all programming and administration errors. Health care professionals that use smart infusion pumps must still practice the rights of medication administration and have other professionals double-check all high-risk infusions.
When blood is exposed to air, it clots. Heparin allows the blood to come in direct contact with air without clotting.