Giving pts. medications to take home at discharge

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I know we are not supposed to send anyone home with their hospital insulin pens/inhalers, even though they will only be thrown away by the hospital afterward, but can anyone tell me exactly *why* we aren't supposed to? I've been telling patients that it's against hospital policy (which it is) and that prescription medications can only be given to them through a pharmacy and with proper packaging and literature; but is there any other reason? It kills me to send some of my pts home that I KNOW don't have any intention of filling their prescriptions because they have no money/insurance. Perhaps if I understood why I can't give them their meds I won't feel quite so upset by this. (I'm in PA, if it matters)

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

It my differ slightly from state to state but the main reason other that an infection control issue is that nurses have a license to ADMINISTER meds NOT DISPENSE them. Due to tighter regulations by the DEA esentially the MD must order the med....the Pharm MD must fill it......a registered nurse must obtain it and licesened personel can give it it properly trained. (loosley interpreted)Look to your nurse practice act in your state or call your board.

check your local state statue......

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

Agree with Esme 12. Law prohibits hospital pharmacy from dispensing.

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Ah okay.. that spells it out much more clearly. Telling patients I am prohibited by law from doing something makes the hospital sound like less of a "bad cop", too. Thanks!

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Specializes in CEN, CPEN, RN-BC.

Often, in the ER, docs will write for a med "to go." When I come across this, I always chart "Dispensed by physician for home use."

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

At our hospital there is some paper work that the doc can fill out so that we can send home the rest of the days doses. And they get charged the hospital cost for them EEK! It works well for the adult floor where you don't have to have your prescriptions filled before you leave, but on our peds floors the parents have to have the prescriptions filled and brought in to be checked before discharge. We have a ledger we have to sign and the docs to fill out.

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This question came up yesterday in a mtg. -- one of the head pharmacists explained that the exact prescribing info. that usually appears on meds purchased outside of the hospital is missing, and that this is why we aren't supposed to send meds home w/ pts.

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Specializes in Med surg, LTC, Administration.

We send meds home all the time. Including narcotics. I live in Mass. The rationale, they paid for them, they own them. We do teaching first and co-sign them out with the patient. I think this saves a person who doesn't feel well, time, effort and money.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

We send insulin pens home with patients all the time, otherwise we throw them away so we don't charge for them. We send the pen back down to pharmacy where they put a new label on it meant for home use.

While it is true that the prescribing info doesn't come packaged with the pens we use in the hospital, printing it out is not an insurmountable task, and is available on each company's website; If your hospital can access google then the excuse that it doesn't come with prescribing info is weak.

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Specializes in Family NP, OB Nursing.

We had to get an order from the doc and then have the pharmacist print out a label with the usual RX info on it including patient name, prescribing doc, medication name and dose and instructions for use. THEN we could give it to the patient to take home.

It wasn't difficult on my floor L&D, since we didn't have too many of these types of meds, but we did have inhalers and insulin pens. Usually, if we had a patient on one of these, we would just have the doc write the take home order when he wrote it and then the pharmacy would label the medication before they brought it to the floor since we didn't stock these meds in our pyxis.

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It could just be hospital policy. At our hospital we have to get a Dr's order to send it home with the patient and then send it to pharmacy to get repackaged. I work in a pretty much ambulatory surgery setting and we send lots of stuff home antibiotic nasal flushes, creams, eyedrops, and more. But when I worked on the floor we could also send home insulin and inhalers with the same stipulations. Also our pharmacy will give us enough meds (generally narcotics, muscle relaxants, and/or anitbiotics) for people that are in after private pharmacies are closed. In this situation we have 2 have 2 scripts one for the patient to take to their pharmacy and one that stays for what our pharmacy dispenses. Our pharmacy only gives out enough until pharmacies open in the AM and only enough for them to be taken right. Our community has no 24 hour pharmacies and they all close at the latest 8PM and open at 8 or 9 AM. I see this often when we are on call at night for things like traumas and gallbladders and some D& Es that generally just meet criteria and go home. I've found that sometimes its better to figure out the reasoning on things then you don't look like a liar and idiot if patient talks to someone else later and you're wrong.

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At our hospital they send us home with anything in his room. If the pharmacy had sent up a 5 day supply and we stay 2 days, we take home the rest. It's wonderful especially for things like eye drops. Also, then we get a "free" supply of syringes and our hospital has the nice amber ones, all with caps!

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