saline flush ..Joint Commission

Nurses Medications

Published

Hello...At your facility are you allowed to stock saline flushes in an unlocked storage container in a patients room? Does the Joint Commission view these as a med or a medical device? I went on the JC site but could not find any information. Food & Drug site ... saline was under medical device...so why can't they be stocked in a pts room? Thank you for any help that is offered

Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

Several years back they could be but now they are treated like medication/medical device so they have to be locked away...Sorry I don't have a link for you :(

Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

Where I work we just have a big bin of them on top of the med cart.

Specializes in ICU.

nope, gotta remove them. Stupid.

Specializes in Critical Care- Medical ICU.

On my unit we keep them stocked in each patient's room, in a basket above the sink where they are readily available. It is an ICU though, I don't know if that makes a difference? Most of the regular units I have been on you could only get a 10cc saline syringe from the Pyxis or smaller ones from a supply room.

Specializes in Developmental Disabilites,.

We have them locked in the medroom. When JCAHO vists we are not even allowed to have them in our pocket. :uhoh3:

We recently had a change in policy on them to where now we CAN leave them in the patient room.

We did until our time for a visit from TJC came due. Now it's suddenly never been OK.

We have them locked in the medroom. When JCAHO vists we are not even allowed to have them in our pocket. :uhoh3:

Ugh, that sucks. I've had to start carrying around flushes and alcohol pads in my pocket because we can't have them in our rooms anymore. You always find a need for them and getting in to the locked supply isn't always convenient!

But I'm glad the Joint Commission is cracking down on such a serious problem. First we're keeping saline flushes handy and before you know it we're engaging in illegal organ harvesting. It is a slippery slope.

Specializes in Oncology.

We keep them on a counter in the patient's room. Most are in the med room and we restock the rooms from there. My unit doesn't do bar-code scanning, but they've done some trials of it and those units have had to scan the saline flushes as a med. Dreading. It.

We have a list of drugs we're allowed to keep in the rooms: saline flushes, artificial tears, cough drops, nose sprays, advair inhalers, nitroglycerin, etc.

Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.

What a pain to scan flushes!

To answer your question...Nope, we can't keep them in the nurse servers. They are in the locked med room or in our pockets.

Specializes in Holistic and Aesthetic Medicine.

I'm in ICU. Where I work, we have to keep them in the locked drawer in the room

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