Potential Patient Safety
Dosing Calculator for Famotidine 40 mg/5 mL (8 mg/mL) Oral Suspension in Cases of Weight-Based Dosing Suggests Incorrect Milliliter Dosage
Release Date
January 15, 2021
Known Issue #
KI196407
Issue
In NextGen® Office EHR, when a provider uses the dosing calculator while prescribing famotidine 40 mg/5 mL (8 mg/mL) oral suspension for a pediatric patient who requires weight-based dosing, the dosing calculator suggests an incorrect dosage in milliliters. The suggested dosage in milligrams is correct.
Steps to Reproduce
In our example, our patient is a two-month-old male who weights 11 pounds and 2 ounces.
- Prescribe famotidine 40 mg/5 mL (8 mg/mL) oral suspension for a pediatric patient who requires weight-based dosing.
- Click Dosing Calculator.
- Click Low Per Day or High Per Day and Low Freq or High Freq for either a Maintenance or Single dose type.
The suggested dosage of 2.52 milligrams is correct, but the suggested dosage of 0.505 milliliters is incorrect. The correct milliliter dosage is 0.3156.
Action Required
- Manually convert the suggested milligram dosage to milliliters or use an external dosing calculator.
- Run a prescriber report to determine whether you have prescribed famotidine 40 mg/5 mL (8 mg/mL) oral suspension for your patients. Verify that you prescribed the correct dosage for affected patients.
Status
This issue was fixed on January 21, 2021.
Clients who are experiencing this issue can link their practice to this issue via the NextGen Healthcare Success Community homepage. Navigate to the Known Issues tab, select the known issue that is affecting your practice, and select the This Known Issue Affects me check box. A case will be created on your behalf and you will be kept updated on the status of this issue.
