Glucose Strip Open/Expire Date Labeling

I'm not sure if this is possible in a larger facility or where your strips are stored. But I keep the strips down in the main lab and the nurses/CNA's on the floors call when they need more. The associates in the lab then label the strips with the open and expiration dates before using our tube station to send them to the floors. I have a sheet that has the current date and then what 180 days would be so its easy for them to just look and label them quickly.

We don't have sustained compliance.  Most areas are usually pretty compliant though.  Sharing what we do in case it's helpful and following for more tips!

We have an educational reminder that goes out every 6 months to all glucose meter users that includes a slide on meter strip and QC expiration dating.  I have laminated expiration date reminder flyers posted all over the place.  We do monthly audits and share with department leaders (I think it helps when they see others doing consistently well).  I requested to add meter strip and QC expiration dating to the nurse leader rounding checklist so they have some ownership over it.

We are a mid-size hospital.  Labels are made and attached to the vials before delivering them to the floors.  When we take the new vials to the floors, we remove the old vials so they can't be used anymore.  The labels have the open date and 90 day exp date on them.  Even if they don't need to use them for awhile after we deliver them (i.e, a small unit that doesn't use the glucometer daily), we still keep the same exp date on them.  We keep extra labeled vials in the lab in case a floor needs a new set.  

We use Joint Commission Tracers, so I created a tracer for nursing to check the QC vials and strips for expiration dates. This places the responsibility on nursing, and it has greatly improved our compliance rate. 

The compliance in our institution can be hit or miss. POCT supplies here must be picked up from the lab. We have a supply area at the front for this purpose. We have taken to dating the bottom of the vials with the date of when we place them in the front. When we do our monthly floor checks, if the vial is not dated with an open date, we base the new expiration date on the date on the bottom of the vial. This has cut the toss out rate way down over the years we have been doing this. We also do the same for the controls (unfortunately these have to be hand dated-the bottoms are too small for a date gun). 

We use a label gun with "expired by" stickers and label about 2 cases at a time in the lab with the 90 day expiration date. The requirement only requires an expiration date, not both (open and exp). The nurses come down to the lab and check out the appropriate amount of vials for their floor. Each floor is limited to a certain amount determined by their use. They usually take about a weeks worth of vials at a time. We have a binder that they sign with their name, date, unit, how many vials they are taking and they check "Yes" to  confirm they are walking away with each vial labeled. This has worked well for our facility.