Electric-Lock Med Carts

[MarcusKspn]

Good Morning everyone, its me again. I wanted to know what everybody else is thinking about this.

We just got brand-new Med-Carts at the nursing home that I work. Instead of a key u use a code to open up the cart. I'm still trying to warm up to the idea. The reason our DON and Administrator decided to use this cart is that we had some meds come up missing. With the new cart the computer can trace who opened up the cart because it stores your code. And your code only works for your cart (mine only works on A-D hall, so I couldn't steal nothing from B-C) The Narcbox is still locked by a hardcopy key. I like the idea of tracking who had access to the meds, but I'm affraid someone might find out my code and then I get the heat for something missing. I think I would like a combination of the two. Have a code to deactivate the electric lock and a key to open up the mechanic one. Anyway,

what do you other nurses think? Have you ever worked with these carts? Have you had any problems with them? Am I just being paranoid and scared off something new? lol

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

Are these carts that you push around to the rooms? Or are they like the dispensing units such as Pyxis?

With the electronic lock at least the cart WILL be locked when you are away.

[OBNURSEHEATHER]

We just got these carts a few months ago, and I pretty much like them. I like being keyless!

The only downside I see is if your code is stolen, but I don't keep mine written anywhere, it's long been memorized!

It's also important to remember to secure the cart when you are done. Otherwise it's still your code in it for everyone else to get stuff out.

MarcusKspn, do you have 2 codes? We have 1 four-digit code to open the entire cart, and another three-digit code that opens narcs. The narc box alarms if it's open for more than a 2 minutes (which really sucks when it comes time to count narcs!), and automatically locks when it's shut, so it can't be left unsecured.

Heather