Spotlight on Drug Calculators
The Southampton and Oxford Retrieval Team (SORT) Drug Calculator was created in 2011. It is an emergency drug dose calculator created to safely support decisions and calculations in stressful situations when managing an acutely unwell child.
SORT Drug Calculator
After entering the patient’s weight in to the SORT drug calculator, emergency drug doses are calculated for that weight. Safety mechanisms also include maximum doses and minimum weight.
The calculator is written in PDF format and will open on any computer with Adobe Reader installed, it will also print on a single sheet of A4.
Drugs include cardiovascular, respiratory, neurology and anaesthetic agents. There is also a section containing vasoactive and sedative infusions.
SORT is a paediatric intensive care retrieval team based in south central England. The calculator is printed and taken on almost all retrievals performed by SORT. It is also accessed to help the management of acutely unwell children in district general hospitals across the region as well as within the tertiary setting.
The next update is currently being tested. Improvements include: dose ranges for infusions and developing the calculator into an iOS app. After the update, we will be carrying out a questionnaire to gain formal feedback on it’s use and suggestions for improvement.
If you have any questions or suggestions then please contact tbennett85@gmail.com