[Shannon77]

What is the med time policy for your state?
Ohio is one hour before and one hour after the stated time. So if I have a 9am pill to give, I can give it as early as 8am but no later than 10am to be in compliance with the state policy (and yes, state WILL get us on not being compliant!).
If your state has a similar policy and she leaves at 4, she can't be passing 5:30/6pm pills because of compliance issues.

[CapeCodMermaid]

Originally Posted by Shannon77

What is the med time policy for your state?
Ohio is one hour before and one hour after the stated time. So if I have a 9am pill to give, I can give it as early as 8am but no later than 10am to be in compliance with the state policy (and yes, state WILL get us on not being compliant!).
If your state has a similar policy and she leaves at 4, she can't be passing 5:30/6pm pills because of compliance issues.

My state,and contrary to popular thought it is not the state of confusion but the even more than normally regulated state of Massachusetts, has the same rules. One hour before and one hour after the scheduled time. That said, if staffing is an issue or the residents don't want to take their meds then, change the times. Once a day is once a day. It hardly matters clinically if most meds are given at 8,9, 10 or 2 for that matter. With culture change and patient centered care slowly making inroads into the archaic way we've been doing things, we can hope that the regimented 9 1 5 9 med times go the way of the dinosaur and reusable syringes.

[Shannon77]

Well my facility changed med times because of staffing issues. Basically each hall has one big med pass, each off set so that if the other hall is down a nurse, you can still pass pills on both wings and be in compliance with the law. Its really nice to get your med pass done, then free up 5 hours to do actual resident care or good charting, orders or whatever needs to be done!


The OP said that she was upset because the 8-4 person was taking too many breaks (which maybe you should just sit her down and talk to her about) AND because she wasn't passing 5/5:30/6pm pills. My point is, if the one hour before/after law is in place there, she can't be asking the 8-4 nurse to pass 6pm pills and be out of compliance herself.
If its such a problem that she is so busy at that time and pills are not getting passed in the allotted time frame, then she needs to address the DON about changing some med times so that she remains in compliance herself.

[Big Smurf2007]

ok well.....not fired....still there......feeling well..... we have the 1 hr before/after rule here. my point is that if she is going to ride the clock until 5 or 6 she can do her meds. i dont expect her to do insulins/others med ith time being more than 1hr before/after. my point was that she smokes her time away and then throws her meds on me to do. got word back she is being watched now.....cant see that happening...