An intravenous potassium policy with concurrent physician evaluation

Hospitals have an ethical, as well as a legal, duty to provide safe care to patients. Responsibility for providing care involving medications is distributed to practitioners within the institution including physicians, nurses, and pharmacists. Each practitioner plays an essential role in the provision of safe intravenous potassium supplementation. A procedure is described which incorporates drug usage evaluation into a safe, simple, intravenous potassium policy.