At the last inservice/gripe session meeting required by my employer (LTC facility) the DON said the nurses needed to start being more careful about things we do because our carelessness is costing a lot of money.
She pulls out two bills and walks over to two nurses and says, "Here is a bill for medication each of you opened and wasted that had been d/c'ed." One nurse had to pay $6 for a card of Xanax because she accidentally removed one from the card and put it back when she realized the patient was no longer on the medication. Apparently this rendered the whole card as used.
The other nurse had to pay $25 for a box of smoking patches because she had opened a patch without realizing the patient was no longer using them. Again, must have rendered the whole box as used.
This nurse insisted that she wanted that box of patches if she had to pay for them. So the DON gave them to her. With these patches being prescription...is that legal?
What came to my mind is, "why were the meds still here if they had been d/c'ed?" but realizing the DON's volatile temper I kept my mouth shut. The DON closed with, "Maybe this will insure you are more careful from now on."
OMGoodness! This is so not legal! I'm betting the BON would love to know that your DON is selling drugs. Really this is way unacceptable. Next she will be counting the ETOH swabs that you use for fingersticks and charging the staff if they use more than one per stick.
Or his $310 generic fentanyl patch! ONE PATCH!!! A MONTH'S worth of patches (15 of them), if you had to pay cash in the pharmacy, is only (I use the term ONLY loosely, mind you) $700!!! And that's the NAME BRAND!
I've read it ALL on his $19k pharmacy bill! FOR NINE DAYS!!
Isn't overcharging what HEALTH INSURANCE is for? I can guarantee you the charges for that are on the patient bill. And it's a lot more than six bucks.
Or his $310 generic fentanyl patch! ONE PATCH!!! A MONTH'S worth of patches (15 of them), if you had to pay cash in the pharmacy, is only (I use the term ONLY loosely, mind you) $700!!! And that's the NAME BRAND!
Wanna hear (read) something frightening? The 2mL vials of Fentanyl we have (for OR use) cost $1.57 per vial. Pt. charge for that? $197 per 2 mL dose. That's just one drug. That's not including the nitrous, Propofol, lidocaine, marcaine, LR, versed........
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
Hmm, all of this is interesting, but I am still concerned over the DON "brokering" drugs this way by charging for them, and in certain cases, giving them to the nurses after charging for them-----this is breaking the law, for sure.
This is just ridiculous. It seems to me that if two or more people are making mistakes then there is a problem somewhere else. Perhaps it is that 1 nurse has 30-40 patients? If I were those nurses I would figure up how many pills I give then do a ratio to errors I made. 99 percent of the time nurses error rate is insanely low and in any other profession would be really admired. Just think if you give 100-200 pills a day and make 1 error you have a accuracy rate of 99-99.5 percent wow. 1 error a day of course is not acceptable but as humans how good can we possibly be? Of course we are dealing with lives here but are surgeries 99% effective?
These people in administration will just place the blame on an easy target when the process is the problem.
I think this practice is ridiculous. I dont know if that exact situation is illegal or not. If it is controlled drugs surely she wouldnt be stupid enough to give those out but over the counter I am not sure. A clerk at a drug store can sell those patches so I dont know. Prescription drugs would hang that DON though. Unfortunately most places of employment can get away with a lot. I am sure they could probably make you responsible to pay for those but again having the DON give those out would be an issue for the pharmacy and nursing board.
Wanna hear (read) something frightening? The 2mL vials of Fentanyl we have (for OR use) cost $1.57 per vial. Pt. charge for that? $197 per 2 mL dose. That's just one drug. That's not including the nitrous, Propofol, lidocaine, marcaine, LR, versed........
Wanna hear something even more frightening? I'm not surprised. Barely admitted to nursing school and already completely jaded on the subject.
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A MONTH'S worth of patches (15 of them), if you had to pay cash in the pharmacy, is only (I use the term ONLY loosely, mind you) $700!!! And that's the NAME BRAND!
CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN
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