borrowing meds

I've never seen it written in our residents' rights information that they have the 'right' to have a medication at the drop of a hat. It really isn't a right. It would be nice if we all were close enough to our pharmacy to get the meds we need immediately, but for most of us, it's not the case.
We have a very large Ekit. All our docs have lists of what is available in the kit and they all also know how long it takes for meds to be delivered. If they order a medication we don't have, we include in the order "Start first dose when available from the pharmacy."
Borrowing from one person to give to another is not good practice. Clinical concerns aside, most insurance companies only pay for a 30/31 day supply. If you borrow from Peter to give to Paul, then Peter will run out of HIS meds too soon and you might end up having to borrow from someone else.

The nurse who accepts the order should be reasonable when assigning admin times. If I get an order at 14:00 (work until 14:30) then I would start it for tomorrow unless I have it in contigency. If I need a med that is not carried in the contigency boxes, then our pharmacy will contact a local pharmacy and cab it over. But not many places are willing to cab meds, so I guess it goes to administration time is the only thing you should manipulate. Borrowing from others is not wise. It is actually considered a med error in our facility.

Sorry, I wasn't clear CapeCodMermaid. I was referring to the right to have adequate and appropriate care> Also
When Peter runs out they go back to Paul.

I know one thing.....If this pt/res is a medicare or medicaid pt and you are "borrowing" medication from him for another patient-your entire facility could be in a world of terror. "Borrowing" is not a state approved practice to my understanding-infact it falls under misappropriation of patient property.....dispensing medications.....distrubuting narcotics..... medicare/medicaid fraud...etc. If that drug is labeled by rx for one patient and u pop it out n give it to another (even if they have an order) you could be in deep doo doo. If you have a policy in place at your institution that covers this and actually states " IF A MEDICATION IS UNAVAILABLE FROM PHARMACY IT MAY BE NECCESSARY TO USE ANOTHER RESIDENTS MEDICATIONS PLEASE FILL OUT such n such form or blah blah blah, u may have more coverage but unless my employer produced such a policy- I'd tell them to take a leap and if they fire you for writting "not available from pharmacy at this time" then I'd have a legal Hayday with them...