Top medications used in a hospital pharmacy?

[SeekerofTruth]

What are some top drugs used in the hospital pharmacy setting? I'm volunteering and when they mention a certain drug I am almost clueless so I was thinking about reading up on some of them.

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[smercer]

Colace....LOL those nurses would shut that place down if they ran out of Colace.

A lot depends on what drugs your hospital keeps as Formulary(this can differ from place to place):

Some highly used drugs are:

Anticoagulants and used for VTE protocols
Heparin, Lovenox, Arixtra, Warfarin

Any med used for anything BP related:

Coreg, Lopressor, Lisinopril, etc

Cholesterol Meds:
(Pretty much any statin) We use Crestor (Rosuvastatin) the most.

Also do not forget that at a hospital everything requires a script...even OTCs:

So you will dispense:
Tylenol, Aspirin, Motrin, Fish Oil, Vitamins, etc

Antibiotics:
Ancef, Rocephin, Zosyn, vancomycin, Gentamicin, Flagyl, Cleocin, Levaquin, and many more.

Narcs:
You will see:
Percocet, Dilaudid, Fentanyl, Morphine, Loratab/Vicodin/Norco( a lot have swapped to Norco due to the reduced Acetominphen dosage of 325 instead of 500), xanax, Oxycontin, and many more.

Antiepileptic/anticonvulsant drugs:

Keppra, Phenobarbitol, Vimpat, Dilantin, and more

This post could go on forever, but I think that is enough for you to go look up.

Start to put together Generic and Brand names...Nurses tend to know Brand name, but you will usually stock/store the meds by generic.
Also start to pick up on Look alike/Sound alike meds:
Look alike ex would be Neurontin and Flomax (both are capsules that use a brown and green side).

 

[DrWrong]

Lovenox

Heparin

Zyvox

Vancomycin and

Levaquin

 

[Acid11]

zofran

 

[Its Z]

As far as number of doses is concerned, saline flush and zofran leads.
As far as total dollars.....neulasta leads.

 

[rxlea]

Lovenox

Heparin

Zyvox

Vancomycin and

Levaquin

Zyvox is a top medication? Yowzers.

 

[xiphoid2010]

Zyvox is a top medication? Yowzers.

In term of dollars, absolutely. A dose of this sucker is like 100 doses of rocephin, and our docs used to use it like water, that and tygacil. Had to stop that pattern in a hurry.

 

[rxlea]

In term of dollars, absolutely. A dose of this sucker is like 100 doses of rocephin, and our docs used to use it like water, that and tygacil. Had to stop that pattern in a hurry.

I don't think the OP was thinking top meds in terms of dollars...

But yes, we do our best to limit the Zyvox, too...and not just because it's expensive.

 

[owlegrad]

LOL@ the colase comment. It is so true though, so true.

 

[DrWrong]

Zyvox is a top medication? Yowzers.

Depending on which hospital I was at for rotations.

It was either Zyvox or cefepime plus flagyl.

You can add ceftriaxone to the list too!

 

[xiphoid2010]

Our ID pharmacist would have a heart attack.

When I first got here, the favorite empiric regimens MDs wrote were: zyvox + zosyn and tygacil + levaquin. You want to guess what's kind of patient/disease the second combo is often used to cover? I was wondering which planet the docs come from.

 

[Praziquantel86]

When I first got here, the favorite empiric regimens MDs wrote were: zyvox + zosyn and tygacil + levaquin. You want to guess what's kind of patient/disease the second combo is often used to cover? I was wondering which planet the docs come from.

Intraabdominal? Or SSTI if you have some really effective drug reps.

 

[xiphoid2010]

Intraabdominal? Or SSTI if you have some really effective drug reps.

No, for pneumonia patients. Crazy stuff.

 

[joetrisman]

Intraabdominal? Or SSTI if you have some really effective drug reps.

Congrats on the Fellow status! Two year ID fellowship I assume?

 

[psychoandy]

tigecycline/levofloxacin for empiric PNA coverage.

that's completely insane.

As far as number of doses is concerned, saline flush and zofran leads.
As far as total dollars.....neulasta leads.

why use neulasta instead of neupogen? or are you including outpt too?