Baxa introduces a line of sterile, pre-filled saline syringes for safe and efficient flushing of IV lines.
The company said that the ZR syringes provide ease of administration, convenience, reduction in the risk of errors, increased assurance of sterility, lower costs and less shelf space than alternatives, while promoting best practice in IV care.
The flush syringes are available as 10ml and 5ml units.
Each syringe is clearly labelled in accordance with NPSA Alert 20, which aims to reduce liquid medication errors.
Their clear syringe barrels assist visual inspection prior to use; a pull-off tip cap indicates whether the seal is broken and also prevents syringe re-use.
Each ZR syringe has a two-year shelf life; expiry dates are clearly visible to nursing staff.
Nearly all in patients require an intravenous solution at some point during their stay in hospital.
Using typical methods, which involve drawing up a saline solution from an ampoule, cross contamination is a genuine risk.
By contrast, the ZR syringes are prepared and packaged within a completely sterile environment, reducing the number of procedures and therefore the risk associated with manual saline solution preparation via a needle, syringe or pod.
By adopting pre-filled flush syringes, which are available without prescription, the number of stages for dose preparation are reduced, which leads to greater compliance with ANTT (Aseptic Non-Touch Technique), recommended by NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence).
