Technician Help Needed!

[enchanted]

Hi everyone! I hope those who work as a pharmacy tech can help me with this.
For inhaler, how do you figure out the days supply for:
Albuterol 17g 2 puffs x tid?

How do you figure the days supply for insulin? 1 unit = ...?

For medication like Albuterol 0.0873%, sometime I'm stupid enough to just put 3ml as the quantity instead of 25 x 3= 75ml

Thanks for the help and hopefully I put this in the right section of the forum.

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[blue88]

For inhalers: divide the total amount of inhalations by the number of inhalations prescribed.

For example: Albuterol inhalers have 200 inhalations.
If the MD writes 2 puffs tid that would be 6 total inhalations daily (2 puffs x 3 times a day).

200/6 = 33 day supply

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For insulin: divide the total amount of units by the units injected daily (there are 100 units per milliliter.)
If the MD prescribes 1 bottle of Lantus (10ml), inject 20 units bid that would be 40 units daily.

There would be 1000 units in a 10ml bottle of lantus (100units x 10ml).
Now divide 1000 units by 40 units.

1000/40 = 25 day supply

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For medication like Albuterol 0.0873% the quantity we use would be 75 because there are 25 3ml vials in the box (25 x 3), but each computer system does it a little different. This is the most common way I have seen it. Just multiply the amount of vials in the box by the size of them.

Then to calculate days supply for those, if the MD wrote for 1 vial VIN q6h prn then you would divide the total number of vials in the box by how many vials are being used daily.

So, there are 25 vials in the box. The patient can use up to 4 vials a day.

25/4 = 6 days supply

_________________________________________________

I hope I explained that okay. Haha.
If you have any other questions let me know, I'll be happy to answer them.

 

[TennisBoy78]

Hi everyone! I hope those who work as a pharmacy tech can help me with this.
For inhaler, how do you figure out the days supply for:
Albuterol 17g 2 puffs x tid?

How do you figure the days supply for insulin? 1 unit = ...?

For medication like Albuterol 0.0873%, sometime I'm stupid enough to just put 3ml as the quantity instead of 25 x 3= 75ml

Thanks for the help and hopefully I put this in the right section of the forum.

I cant answer the insulin question because you need more info.

I can answer your Albuterol question. A 17g Albuterol package contains 200 inhalations. Simply divide 200 by your sig. 200/6 (2 puffs, 3 times daily) is a 34 day supply, which magically, is the maximum days supply that a lot of insurance companies will pay for at one time!

 

[TennisBoy78]

For inhalers: divide the total amount of inhalations by the number of inhalations prescribed.

For example: Albuterol inhalers have 200 inhalations.
If the MD writes 2 puffs tid that would be 6 total inhalations daily (2 puffs x 3 times a day).

200/6 = 33 day supply

___________________________________________

For insulin: divide the total amount of units by the units injected daily (there are 100 units per milliliter.)
If the MD prescribes 1 bottle of Lantus (10ml), inject 20 units bid that would be 40 units daily.

There would be 1000 units in a 10ml bottle of lantus (100units x 10ml).
Now divide 1000 units by 40 units.

1000/40 = 25 day supply

_____________________________________________

For medication like Albuterol 0.0873% the quantity we use would be 75 because there are 25 3ml vials in the box (25 x 3), but each computer system does it a little different. This is the most common way I have seen it. Just multiply the amount of vials in the box by the size of them.

Then to calculate days supply for those, if the MD wrote for 1 vial VIN q6h prn then you would divide the total number of vials in the box by how many vials are being used daily.

So, there are 25 vials in the box. The patient can use up to 4 vials a day.

25/4 = 6 days supply

_________________________________________________

I hope I explained that okay. Haha.
If you have any other questions let me know, I'll be happy to answer them.

My math comes up with a 33.33 day supply. In calculating days supply, you should always round up to the next whole number, therefore it should be 34. Likewise with 25/4, the days supply is 6.25, but rounding up makes it a 7 day supply. In pharmacy, numbers do not have to be .5 or above in order to round up.