Meds in lock up

[lexibear99]

What meds does your facility keep in the "narcotic lock up" and count at the beginning and end of every shift?

[GreenvilleRN]

Scheduled III and IV medications are double locked in med cart....in Maine C.N.A.-M (Med Techs) can pass these under a RN direction.

Scheduled II Narcotics are locked in double locked wall box that only Licensed Staff have access to.

This is governed by regulation. I know in some larger facilities they also lock up other medications that are more highly sought after or with "unintended/off label uses"

[SaraO'Hara]

Ambien, Restoril, Ativan, Vicodin, Norco, Dilaudid, etc... the narcotic emergency kit goes in the lock-box too. Med cart opens with a combination; the narcotic drawer opens with a key. Only licensed staff have access.

[Thornbird]

Federal law requires schedule drugs through Schedule IV be double locked. Some facilities or their pharmacists require schedule V and non-schedule drugs of some types to be double locked, that's their own policy. Lomotil is a far-removed opioid derivative. Immodium is not regulated so many facilities go with that instead. All meds are locked in some way. It takes a lot of pseudo-ephedrine to do anything illegal with and it's generally not a good drug for the elderly anyway. Many facilities separate their "narcotic" emergency kits from their other emergency drugs for ease of access to commonly used emergency drugs that don't have to be counted.

[NurseKatie08, MSN]

We have one narcotic e-kit for the whole building, which is kept double locked in one of the med-carts on rehab. Antibiotic E-kits, Coumadin kits, IV E-kits etc are kept locked in rooms on each unit that only licensed nursing staff have access to.