Vancomycin Prescribing | Right Decisions

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Antimicrobial prescribing: NHS Grampian, Orkney & Shetland
Vancomycin Prescribing

Announcements and latest updates

Polyfill.io vulnerability

28 june 2024

Our eHealth team advised us yesterday of an international vulnerability relating to polyfill.io . This domain has become compromised and is spreading malware through a widespread supply chain attack, estimated to affect over 110,000 websites including major websites such as the BBC. The Polyfill site offered widely used bits of code for older browsers that allowed the use of modern Javascript features. Such code makes the work for web developers easier and allows compatibility with a broader range of browsers.

Websites that have used the Javascript code from Polyfill have been urged to remove such code immediately. The change occurred after a suspected Chinese firm purchased the domain in early 2024.

Tactuum have identified and are now testing a fix to remove all Polyfill code from the RDS site.. They will be deploying the fix on Monday 1 July along with other planned fixes and amendments. I will notify you of the timing of the deployment as soon as possible.

In the meantime, please ensure that you have up-to-date anti-virus software installed on your machines and personal devices.

Please refer to the full vancomycin guideline for further details on prescribing, administering and monitoring.

Use the calculator choosing the 'Intermittent' option

Continuous infusion of vancomycin is only prescribed in high dependency areas.

It is good practice to print a copy of the result if possible. The printed vancomycin dose calculation should be filed with the patient's vancomycin prescription and administration record.

Prescribe vancomycin on the (green) vancomycin prescription, administration and monitoring chart - available on wards or via your ward pharmacist. If your ward area use HEPMA, vancomycin must also be prescribed as a 'PRN' selecting 'Vancomycin (ADULTS) Infusion AS PER PAPER CHART' with the dose entered as ‘1 dose’ and the frequency field left blank.