Have you ever laid in bed at night and wondered “What will we do if our Designated Person leaves?” If this possibility hasn’t crossed your mind, it should.
The Designated Person plays a vital role in your organization and is required by USP <800>. They’re so important that if that person leaves, you’re pretty much sunk.
Have you taken stock of all the responsibilities of the Designated Person lately?
Their primary role is to ensure compliance with USP <800> in addition to other laws and regulations. This huge responsibility includes many equally important tasks like meetings with regulatory agency inspectors, developing and implementing SOPs for risk prevention, maintaining reports and records about personnel training and environmental testing. The list goes on and on.
If any of this is not recorded and backed up when your Designated Person leaves, guess what? You’re sunk. Yes, we’re on repeat but this role is profoundly important to the safety of your healthcare workers, to your organization’s compliance with USP <800> and many other regulations.
Many organizations continue to store hazardous drugs safety information in documents and spreadsheets on the intranet. Another option is a web-based software platform, which can make day-to-day operations safer and more efficient and also serves as an insurance policy should your Designated Person leave.
In a comprehensive web-based hazardous drugs database, all SDS, SOPs, training documentation and requirements (and much more) will be stored, shared and consistently updated. The end result is a healthier workplace and a thorough, up-to-date source of truth of your organization’s safety guidelines.
In fact, Rhazdrugs was cultivated from a shocking realization of one of our FormWeb customers. His Designated Person said the fateful words you’ve been subjected to throughout this blog: “If I leave, you’ll be sunk.” It wasn’t a threat, but a cautious warning. In this hospital, the Designated Person was all-knowing when it came to hazardous drugs safety protocol, reporting, training and all the documentation that goes along with this massive role. Our customer came to us asking for a solution and Rhazdrugs was born.
We then spent a lot of time consulting with other customers - nurses, physicians, and pharmacy directors - to ensure Rhazdrugs met all of their hazardous drugs safety program requirements. This dialog with customers continues as needs change and evolve because our sole purpose is to improve the safety of patients and healthcare workers.
We ask you again: do you have a backup should your Designated Person leave? If you don’t, give us a call to see if a web-based hazardous drugs safety database could be your solution.
If you need more information on how to establish an effective hazardous drugs communication plan, check out our blog for the 8 must-have components to ensure healthcare worker safety.
