Do you send meds along on a Leave of Absence?

[DPRN]

I work in a long term care facility and more specifically, personal care. We have a question at our facility about what to do when a resident goes out for the day or overnight. Does your facility send a resident's meds out with the resident or play "catch up" upon return. We usually order specific leave of absence meds for our residents to take when they go out. The problem is that the families do not tell us ahead of time that they intend on taking their family member out. My question is about the packaging. Do you send the month supply that we get from the pharmacy or do you order an extra set of med specifically for the leave of absence. What do you send if a resident only uses the three month mail order pharmacies? Do your residents or families sign out that they are taking the meds? In PA, nurses are not allowed to repackage the meds to send out because we are not pharmacists. Please tell me how you handle the med issue so we can be better prepared for Christmas. Thank you!

[caliotter3]

I only recall seeing this one time. A resident went out for the weekend. Meds were placed in a brown paper bag and signed out with the patient. I don't know if they removed only what would be needed for those days. I do remember all of this because unfortunately the resident, if I remember correctly, is the one who expired at home while on leave of absence.

[ktwlpn, LPN]

Families are informed upon admission that our pharmacy requires 72 hour for LOA meds-we order them and they come in seperate baggies with labels on each.We will send bottles of eye gtts and such.If the families don't give us adequate notice and insist on taking their loved one out without the meds then we notify the physician and it's an un-authorized pass (against medical advice) I have never had a problem getting meds at the last minute-our pharmacy has been good that way.

[Not_A_Hat_Person, RN]

I work in residential care, and residents can get their meds through our pharmacy or another one. If they're taking a trip and they use our pharmacy, we let the pharmacy package the meds. Otherwise, we have do it. The higher-ups are trying to craft a policy about packing meds for residents that don't use our pharmacy.

[eldragon]

Even though it was time consuming, I will use little envelopes and write the time of day, and the date if the person will be gone a few days, and include the medications to be taken at that time. When someone takes meds at 0600, 0900, 1300, 1700, and 2100 - that can take a while but at least then I know that the patient has a clear idea of when meds are to be taken.

[Jami RN, BSN, RN]

It is my understanding that nurses are not to re-package any meds to send out with patients or residents. It is considered "dispensing" medications and is not within a nurses' scope. Others may correct me if I'm wrong, but this is what I was told when I worked at a LTC facility.

[caliotter3]

Even though it was time consuming, I will use little envelopes and write the time of day, and the date if the person will be gone a few days, and include the medications to be taken at that time. When someone takes meds at 0600, 0900, 1300, 1700, and 2100 - that can take a while but at least then I know that the patient has a clear idea of when meds are to be taken.

I like this idea and would do the same if I had to send meds with the resident.

[MississippiLPN09]

I work in LTC and the nurses where I work send meds home all the time we label them as well in seperate envelopes for saftey. I will have to check into the question about " nurses cant repackage meds." We never have any notice when residents will go out.

[loriangel14, RN]

I work on a complex continuing care hospital and we have rehab pts that go out of the faciity for doctors appts. and sometimes have passes to go out for special occassions. We also have numerous senior pts that are staying with us until a nursing home bed becomes available for them. many times we have pts going out for several hours and even overnight. We have little bottles and we package up any meds they will need and put a label on them stating what it is and when to take it.

[DPRN]

We used to package meds in little envelopes, but this was considered to be repackaging. Now we are supposed to order in extra meds for the resident to take with them.

[Blackcat99]

I was told officially at my old job "Nurses are not allowed to dispense medications. However, the reality is that you the nurse put the meds in little envelopes and give to the patient to take with them. That's the way it was done at my job in a LTC in Washington state. You know that reminds me the DON gave me a hard time before I left that job. I wonder if I should let the state board of nursing know how they do LOA meds at that place?

[kappykatlpn]

I work in LTC, and we have residents go out over night frequently. Our pills are in bubble cards. We just send the meds they would need for the time out, in little pill envelopes.