giving meds with other name on them

BrandonLPN, LPN · Mar 17, 2015

A better system would be to just have stock med cards of catapress, vistiril and flexiril in the cart. No patient name necessary. Each card is clearly labeled with the name of the medication and the dose.

As for losing your license, Im going to guess these cards with patients' names on them still have the name of the medication and the dose on them. And you have a valid doctor's order. So I do not see how it is a med error.

But if you're giving out these three meds all the time, it seems it would be wiser to order them as stock meds. Is there some sort of billing or reimbursement reason each patient has to have their own card of these meds?

CTnewgrad826 · Mar 17, 2015

By giving a med with another patients name on it you aren't following the "right patient" rule and I think there could definitely be consequences if the state catches this...not sure exactly what they would be but I would definitely be concerned for my license just as you are.

I agree with the PP, see if the pharmacy can send up the meds w/o names eliminating this problem all together.

nurseat52 · Mar 17, 2015

It does have to do with insurance, because some patients insurances do not pay for these meds so the meds are only filled if they are covered. I think by doing it this way the detox is not paying for stock meds. Thanks for answering, I was nervous because it was drilled into my head in school to check name and patient at least 3x to make sure correct med and patient. I will breath a little easier next time I work

caliotter3 · Mar 17, 2015

If you know that a surveying party is in the house, make certain to pull from the patient's own med card during your shift. That way you do not have to worry about getting caught pulling from a different med card.

calivianya, BSN, RN · Mar 17, 2015

I would personally throw all meds from discharged patients into the discharged patient bin and request new, re-labeled meds from pharmacy to cover my butt. It shouldn't be that hard to get the meds re-labeled instead of grabbing meds under a different patient's name.

CTnewgrad826 · Mar 17, 2015

I just wanted to reiterate that you should by no means be "more at ease" next time you do this. Although your patients may be on the same exact drug/dose, giving medication prescribed to someone else is ILLEGAL. Talk to pharmacy ASAP and use only the patients specific med pack until this problem is solved.

Farawyn · Mar 17, 2015

I would personally throw all meds from discharged patients into the discharged patient bin and request new, re-labeled meds from pharmacy to cover my butt. It shouldn't be that hard to get the meds re-labeled instead of grabbing meds under a different patient's name.

Agree completely. As tempting as it is to just keep going, don't do that.

Right med, right patient, right day, right dose, right route, right time...right?

Edit: Wait, that's 6. I added one. ???

BlueChocolateCat · Mar 17, 2015

I understand thats "how things are done" on your unit, but it does not reflect best practice at all.

Meds are dispenced from pharmacy with a patient label for a reason. If I were you, I seriously encourage this practice to end.

heron, ASN, RN · Mar 17, 2015

I think it would be considered insurance fraud. The facility is using meds paid for by insurance for other, uninsured individuals. Consider dropping a line to your risk management people.

vanilla bean · Mar 17, 2015

I think it would be considered insurance fraud. The facility is using meds paid for by insurance for other, uninsured individuals. Consider dropping a line to your risk management people.

That is exactly what I was thinking when I read OP's post. If Medicare or Medicaid are involved, this practice could also be seen as fraud against the government. Not a good situation.

MunoRN, RN · Mar 17, 2015

Providing a patient with their own medications and administering medications are two very different things. Non-licensed caregivers are limited to providing patients with medications that have already been designated for that patient. Licensed/registered nurses are allowed to administer, which makes who those meds may have been intended for at one point in time irrelevant.

In medication administration, "right patient" refers to the patient on the order the nurse is interpreting. So long as the nurse is interpreting the order that is for that patient, and administering the medication stated in the order, it makes no difference if that med was in another bin, since having patient specific bins or supplies only makes it easier to locate the medication that the nurse is still going to have to evaluate based on the medication identifiers themselves (not who the med was stored for).

This typically doesn't make a difference in billing either. If what you're doing is supplying the patient with medication they supplied to facility then that would be an issue, but otherwise medicare and insurance companies are paying for each medication administered, it doesn't matter if the facility bought x amount of medications for the purpose of administering them to a certain patient, they can only bill for medication actually administered so it makes no difference to medicare or insurers who the facility intended to provide those medications to when the facility purchased them.