Does anyone carry a Care Kit/emergency meds?

Specialties Hospice

Published

Specializes in Hospice.

Hello to all.

I'm a hospice admissions nurse in North Carolina, and sometimes cover a LOT of territory.

I've noticed that time spent during the day going back to the office for a care kit (emergency meds) can REALLY add to my day. Sometimes I'll be at an admisison, and our intake dept will email me about another admission that's close to where I am, but the second admission needs a care kit, and the nearest office of my company is 45 minutes or more away. Our usual process is that care kits are ordered for next day delievery, although with my sort of crazy schedule (11am-9pm) "next day" delievery usually isn't an option...it's 2 days.

Does anyone's company have a way to carry a care kit as part of your car stock? How does your company handle emergency medication availability/ordering for late in the day/evening admissions?

Thanks.

Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.
Hello to all.

I'm a hospice admissions nurse in North Carolina, and sometimes cover a LOT of territory.

I've noticed that time spent during the day going back to the office for a care kit (emergency meds) can REALLY add to my day. Sometimes I'll be at an admisison, and our intake dept will email me about another admission that's close to where I am, but the second admission needs a care kit, and the nearest office of my company is 45 minutes or more away. Our usual process is that care kits are ordered for next day delievery, although with my sort of crazy schedule (11am-9pm) "next day" delievery usually isn't an option...it's 2 days.

Does anyone's company have a way to carry a care kit as part of your car stock? How does your company handle emergency medication availability/ordering for late in the day/evening admissions?

Thanks.

It sounds like perhaps you are using a mail order hospice pharmacy and have comfort kits present in your office for admits.

Will your agency let you take an extra kit with you for the unexpected intakes while you are in the field? I would imagine that you have to sign them out for each individual patient, but couldn't you have control of an unassigned kit for situations such as this?

Does your agency have volunteers that could deliver the kit same day as admit?

Can the intake department order the kit for delivery so that it is not delayed by your "crazy schedule"?

I am a bit surprised that your agency has not defined another plan so that they are not paying you to retrieve meds from remote locations to deliver to pt homes. As you have identified, that is not very cost effective or an efficient use of your time.

Your employer may be pleased if you can come up with some recommendations that would improve your productivity while saving the agency money and improving service to the patient.

Good luck!

Specializes in hospice.

we have a pharmacy on call 24/7 and they will deliver all meds anytime. We are not allowed to carry medications with us in our cars, for safety.

Specializes in Hospice.

Jeanne.......how would you handle arriving at a patient's home after hours for an admission visit and they were in pain? Does your pharmacy have different locations for patients in different geographic areas?

We are really trying to find ways to reduce the amount of nonproductive time in our day, and chasing down care kits seems to be one of those. I haven't come up with anything yet. (sigh)

Thanks again for any insight.

Specializes in hospice.

Sometimes when we know there is a pain issue, the nurse that does the eval will call the physician and get an order so it is at the house when they get there. If we call in a stat order, they have 2 hours to get it to the house and we try to ensure before they leave the hospital, they are medicated.

Most of the time, if I arrive and they are in pain, I start with ordering the medication and usually it is there before I leave the admission. Can the office have a runner that can take the medication out to where you are? When I am out and need supplies or something, I call the office and they have someone from the office or one of the HHA that happens to be in the office get it out to the pt.

Specializes in Hospice, Nursing Education, Primary Care.

I appreciate having worked for places that have a 24 hour pharmacy delivery service. I would not like carrying the emergency care kit to the patient's homes. I can see this would be very frustrating for NativeNewEnglandah.

We have a comfort kit that is deliver by Hospice Pharmacia when we admit a patient. iWork in a mainly rural area and we only have 2 24 hour pharmacies in a 70 mile area

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