ADVICE...? Please help me think of a way to solve this issue.

[babymason2008]

Could someone give me a "SIMPLE" solution to this problem....

As everyone knows in the Nursing Home Setting, medication is dipensed thru a med cart with a M.A.R. binder to sign off the medication that has been dispensed to the residents, and at the end of each shift (7-3, 3-11, 11-7) All nurses must sign off and count off on the "NARCOTICS" that have been dispensed thruout the day.

So my question is...how can I make a system up to where all my nurses need to do counts and sign off for the ENTIRE MED CART (all meds, prn, and narcotics)

Its easy to make up narcotic sheets when there's usually a few narcotics for each resident. Now that I need to have the staff sign off in the M.A.R. while dispensing and count all meds at the end of shift it gets tedious and they're going to spend too much time counting all the medications. So Im trying to create a system that would be simple yet serve the purpose intended.

***ANY OPINIONS or IDEAS ARE APPRECIATED

(if you're wondering, this was not an idea from me but from higher authority.... :))

[CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN]

Same answer as the above. I just wanna know WHY??

[Dixiecup]

I worked in the prison system for several years. This happened to us.

We had to start not only counting, but signing out EVERY pill we gave. This was implemented because of theft. It was absolutely rediculous! It lasted about six months and the nurses were losing their minds, it finally ended!

[Biogirl4]

How ridiculous! Have a bar code system with a hand held scanner......

I'm not even a nurse ---yet, but the idea of using a bar code scanner was a godsend in my former job. We had to count thousands of toys everyday and record what was wrong with them. We had a sheet of barcodes that represented the problem, and all of the toys had a bar code. Beep Beep and it was logged. Reports were run later at the office. Of course it would cost money, and you would have to work out the software piece (generic packages are available). But if you are really strapped to do this, a scanner might not be a bad thing to look into and it is likely cheaper than a pixys.