Using and Documenting Priming Units on Insulin Pens

In 1985, the first insulin pen was invented – it gave patients a flexible way of self-administration and autonomy from burdensome vials and syringes. Today there are a multitude of insulin products available as FlexPen^®, FlexTouch^®, KwikPen^®, and Solostar^® pens that offer convenience and discretion for patients with diabetes.

The patient Instructions for Use, included with insulin pen boxes, direct patients to prime the pen needle prior to administering each dose. This is for many reasons, including removing any air between the pen itself and the pen needle, ensuring the pen is properly working, and ensuring the correct dose is administered. The usual, reliable adage has been 2 priming units per dose, but some insulin pens require three to five priming units!

PAAS National^® created the Insulin Medication Chart that includes which insulin pens deviate from the standard two priming units:

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Insulin	Priming Units
Humulin^® R U-500 KwikPen^® regular insulin human	5
Toujeo^® Solostar^® 300 Unit/mL insulin glargine	3
Toujeo^® MAX Solostar^® 300 Unit/mL insulin glargine	4

PAAS Tips:

If your pharmacy uses priming units to calculate days’ supply, make sure to document on the hard copy for auditing purposes.
When documenting priming units for the atypical products in the chart above, be sure to indicate the priming unit volume that you are calculating with

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Chelsea Davis, CPhT

Analyst at PAAS National^®

During college at UW-Whitewater, I did a year internship at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL and worked in Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom. Working as an Attractions Hostess, I operated rides such as Peter Pan’s Flight, It’s a Small World, Mickey’s PhilharMagic, Dumbo, and Prince Charming’s Carousel. After returning home and graduating, I started working at Walgreens, in management. As part of the Advanced Store Management Training Program, one had to be PTCB certified and had to do some training in the pharmacy. I passed the PTCB test and began to spend more time back in the pharmacy. I eventually decided to become a pharmacy tech, and within a couple of years became a senior tech. A few years later, I was tasked with becoming PTCB facilitator, where I taught hundreds of Walgreens techs to become PTCB certified. I then went on to a local hospital chain, where I helped to open and run a Remote Dispensing Site and expanded their Pharmacy Access Program. There is where mutual connections got me to an invitation to apply to be a PAAS Analyst. I am thrilled to be here, and I hope my experience will help bring clarity to you as I help with your audit and questions.

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