Co-Worker gave expired prescription med

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Grr... I am so frustrated right now. I came on shift today(I work every other weekend only with this client) and discovered clients BP med expired on 9/14 and primary caregiver has been giving it all week and has not reordered it. Now I am stuck all weekend with no med to give client. I reordered it today.

I want to know if I should report it to her RN case manager? We do not work for the same agency.

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Specializes in Pediatric Private Duty; Camp Nursing.

The med will not expire until the last day of 9/14. So you are good!

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I am sorry- I should have clarified that it expired 9/14/14. After hearing a few other things that the client told me today that were red flags- I sent an email to my co workers RN supervisor. I had no choice.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

What kind of med? Many pharmacies date use by for 30 days post Rx fill even though not truly expired by GMP/GCP/stability standards. Did it expire by the pharmacy label or the manufacturer label? I've never seen a drug manufacturer put a mid month expiration date.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.
I am sorry- I should have clarified that it expired 9/14/14. After hearing a few other things that the client told me today that were red flags- I sent an email to my co workers RN supervisor. I had no choice.

Why not report to YOUR supervisor? I work several dual agency cases. If there is an issue or concern I report the issue/incident to MY nurse supervisor who follows up with the other agency supervisor. I work 2 agencies and one case both agencies staff the same case. (I can only work the case for one agency) when there was a significant issue involving agency 2 nurse, I reported to the supervisor agency 1 that I was working for at the time. Even though I also work for agency 2, my obligation on this case is to agency 1.

Plus it could be embellished stories. I would not be the third party but just report that the client has concerns to my supervisor to follow up. You don't want to get in the middle

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Good point^

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It is a compounded liquid and it clearly states on label to discard after 9/14/14.

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It is a compounded liquid and it clearly states on label to discard after 9/14/14.

Was wondering about this as all my personal meds have a month and year expiration date on them (same for clients). I also agree that you need to report to your own clin supvr and let her deal with communicating with the other agency. That will cut down on possible stomach and headaches for you all the way around.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.
It is a compounded liquid and it clearly states on label to discard after 9/14/14.

You could always call the pharmacist to check stability. From working in pharmaceuticals and drug stability the discard date is always short to allow for less than optimum storage and increased risk of contamination with more relaxed practices in the home environment (temp fluctuations, inadequate remixing, etc) stability is often a range and the pharmacist can advise if it's an absolute (drug is unstable or breaks down at day 28) or relative (reasonably stable at least 28 days, still meets QA criteria at day 42 in optimum conditions and stable temperatures) but the pharmacist would be the expert to consult. You could document the conversation and then notify YOUR supervisor of the research. Sometimes giving a seemingly expired drug has benefits outweighing the risks. Id think this would be phone call worthy not email worthy.

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I have emailed and spoken with both RN supervisors and one was able to get medication filled for am pick up tomorrow.

Thank you for all the great advice! It is easy to feel alone doing private duty ?

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Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.

I agree with what justbeachynurse said! It's more work but the benefits could really be beneficial for the Patient.

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Specializes in Peds(PICU, NICU float), PDN, ICU.

Communicating with another agency about one of their employees is dangerous. They may not believe you...you are the competitor. You may work for that supervisor in the future and s/he may not trust you because they know you could create problems between them and other agencies. If your boss finds out, they will be upset that you went outside of your job description. That's a situation for your supervisor to handle, not you.

The nursing world is small. You don't want that reputation. Eventually you'll work with someone who knows about this and it could cause trouble for you.

The med is probably fine, but by the book we don't give it. Pharmacies will put a date a month out to get people to renew prescriptions on time. The original bottle it came out of probably had a date on it a year from now. You can always contact the pharmacist and then document the conversation.

Discount stores sell expired OTC meds all the time. I've never heard of someone dying from taking a med a day late. I'm sure there is some med out there where the date would be much more important. I personally wouldn't take an expired med, a med stored wrong, or anything like that. But a simple call to the pharmacist and then a call to your supervisor is plenty. And I wouldn't bother a supervisor on a weekend about it.

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