American journal of health-system pharmacy : AJHP : official journal of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists
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Am J Health Syst Pharm · Dec 1998
A cost-effectiveness model for analyzing two varicella vaccination strategies.
A model for estimating the cost-effectiveness of a program for vaccinating employees at a health care institution against varicella zoster virus (VZV) was studied. Three outcomes of varicella vaccination--cost-effectiveness, reduction in employee infections, and reduction in patient exposures--were stratified to estimate the incremental costs of vaccinating three employee groups. The groups consisted of all employees (vaccinate-all group), employees providing direct patient care (direct care group), and employees working in high-risk patient care areas (high-risk group). ⋯ Vaccination of all employees prevented 35 employee infections and 674 patient exposures for every 10,000 potentially susceptible employees. The cost of preventing one employee infection was about $15,000, and the cost of preventing one patient exposure was about $775. An employee vaccination program is a good investment in preventing patient exposures to VZV and may be cost-effective compared with only screening employees.
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Am J Health Syst Pharm · Dec 1998
Stability of ondansetron hydrochloride and 12 medications in plastic syringes.
The stability and compatibility of ondansetron hydrochloride with neostigmine methylsulfate, naloxone hydrochloride, midazolam hydrochloride, fentanyl citrate, alfentanil hydrochloride, atropine sulfate, morphine sulfate, meperidine hydrochloride, propofol, droperidol, metoclopramide monohydrochloride, and glycopyrrolate were studied. Ondansetron 1.33 or 1.0 mg/mL was combined with 0.9% sodium chloride injection and each of the 12 drugs in duplicate in plastic syringes (or glass for propofol). The syringes were stored at 21.8-23.4 or 4 degrees C in the dark, except for those containing propofol, which were stored at ambient temperature. ⋯ Solutions containing each of the other drugs except droperidol retained more than 90% of their initial concentration of these drugs. The solutions containing droperidol retained more than 90% of their initial droperidol concentration for up to eight hours at ambient temperature but precipitated quickly at 4 degrees C. In combinations of ondansetron 1.33 or 1.0 mg/mL and 10 of 12 drugs, all drugs were stable for 24 hours in plastic syringes at 23 and 4 degrees C; ondansetron hydrochloride 1.0 mg/mL and propofol 1.0 and 5.0 mg/mL in admixtures were stable for 4 hours, and droperidol on its own and combined with ondansetron 1.0 mg/mL was stable for no more than 8 hours at ambient temperature.