Policy and Procedures for Cycle Meds...

[PierreB]

Good afternoon, everyone.

I just started a new job as a policy and procedure writer for a hospital here in Los Angeles. I am in need of help regarding my latest assignment.

Instead of Googling an answer, I would rather hear it from the source...from you!

I was tasked to write a policy and procedure memo on how to check in routine monthly medications...cycle meds.

If anyone of you fine nurses can help me and let me know how you go about checking in routine medication and if you have a policy or procedure just for that, I'd love to hear about it.

Best regards,

Pierre Brodeur

[Sour Lemon]

I don't even understand the question. I googled "cycle meds", but what do you mean by "checking them in"?

[AliNajaCat]

No idea what this means. Never heard the term. What kind of facility is this? Where do your patients come from?

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Years ago I worked at a nursing home that had residents' medications on a monthly cycle. Each resident's card blister pack contained 30 days worth of medication doses in pill form that the remote pharmacy delivered to the facility monthly.

However, I know nothing about the policies and procedures surrounding cycle medications. It is not a common system, especially in this day and age of rapid patient turnaround times.

[PierreB]

You're in my ball park.

Basically, I am being asked to come up with a policy and procedure checklist for when nurses check in routine monthly medication. A step by step process to show what the nurse needs to do when the meds come in from the pharmacy.

Isn't there a 3-piece document, like a carbon copy, that goes into the resident's file, one for the pharmacy and one for the nurse?

I'm way over my head. Oy vey!

[PierreB]

Please see my response to the third poster, The Commuter.

[PierreB]

Ali,

It's an ICF/IID-H. The policy is for meds that the nurses take in from the pharmacy since the pharmacy is not on-site. There needs to be a policy and procedure plan in place and some standardized way of med intake.

[amoLucia]

Can you observe some staff when they receive the new deliveries? Get some ideas what they do that works and what doesn't?

Or do you just have to jump in and write something up?

Also, is there just a once-a-month med exchange, or do you have rolling deliveries as the med runs out? It would make a difference.

I see 2 specific areas for such a process. One is just inventory-ing meds received - that's just a checklist to document that Nancy Nurse received 30 Lasix 40 mg pills and 30 lisinopril 20 mg pills for pt John Doe.

The second area is to ensure (insure) that those pills are the ones to be continued for the upcoming month (after all, the Lasix 40 could have been decreased to 20 that morning and there would have to be a way to get the new 20s and delete the 40s and with all the correct paperwork).

By the way, have you ever done something like this changeover? It would help! In LTC, we called it rollovers, changeovers, recaps, monthlys. etc names.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Please see my response to the third poster, The Commuter.

I am the third poster. My previous post is the third response to your inquiry.

[Sour Lemon]

I am the third poster. My previous post is the third response to your inquiry.

I think he was trying to indicate that his post and request for follow-up clarification was directed at you ...or at least based on what you posted in your response.

[PierreB]

Correctumundo.

[Sour Lemon]

Correctumundo.

If you hit the "quote" button in the lower right corner before responding, people will know exactly who you're responding to each time.