Intravenous (IV) push administration can provide clinical and practical advantages over longer IV infusions in multiple clinical scenarios, including in the emergency department, in fluid-restricted patients, and when supplies of diluents are limited. In these settings, conversion to IV push administration may provide a solution. This review compiles available data on IV push administration of antibiotics in adults, including preparation, stability, and administration instructions. Prescribing information, multiple tertiary drug resources, and primary literature were consulted to compile relevant data. Several antibiotics are Food and Drug Administration-approved for IV push administration, including many beta-lactams. In addition, cefepime, ceftriaxone, ertapenem, gentamicin, and tobramycin have primary literature data to support IV push administration. While amikacin, ciprofloxacin, imipenem/cilastatin, and metronidazole have limited primary literature data on IV push administration, available data do not support that route. In addition, a discussion on practical considerations, such as IV push best practices and pharmacodynamic considerations, is provided.

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Purpose To evaluate the accuracy of the forecast of drug expenditures in nonfederal hospitals and clinics published annually in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy (AJHP) compared to the drug expenditure forecasts produced annually by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Methods The forecasted drug expenditure growth published in AJHP for nonfederal hospitals (for the years 2003 to 2013) and clinics (for the years 2004 to 2013) was compared to the actual growth each year. The actual and forecasted growth published by CMS was analyzed for the years 2003 to 2012. The mean absolute error (MAE) and directional accuracy for the AJHP forecasts for nonfederal hospitals and clinics, and for the CMS forecasts, were determined and compared. Results Actual growth was within the forecasted range in 2 of 11 years for nonfederal hospitals, and in 3 of 10 years for clinics. The forecasts were directionally accurate 27.3% and 60.0% of the time for nonfederal hospitals and clinics, respectively. The MAE for the nonfederal hospital and clinic drug expenditure forecasts were 2.0 and 4.7 percentage points, respectively. The CMS forecasts were directionally accurate 70% of the time, and the MAE was 2.2 percentage points and was not statistically different than the AJHP forecasts. Conclusion The forecasts published annually in AJHP have comparable accuracy that by CMS for predicting prescription expenditure growth. The forecast paper provides an overview of current trends, which must be combined with local information to accurately forecast institutional drug expenditures.

This chart is an update to the 2012 article published in Hospital Pharmacy on injectable drugs to be used with a filter. To update the chart, drugs approved from December 2011 to April 2019 were reviewed to determine if they require filtration and drugs included in the 2012 table were reviewed for accuracy. Readers are urged to review national standards of practice for information about clinical situations that warrant the use of a filter for medication preparation or administration, independent of the drug being given, and the reader should consult the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved prescribing information for the most up-to-date information.