JCAHO and supplies at the bedside

[SharkadelicRN]

We are getting ready for our JCAHO survey and our nurse managers found out that an area that a lot of hospitals are being dinged on is having supplies at the bedside, such as syringes, needles, saline vials, saline bullets, EKG electrodes, tape, etc... I am wondering if anybody out there has had a recent JCAHO survey and was this an issue. If so, how are you handling it. We were told we could stuff our pockets, wear a fanny pack, install locked cabinets in all the rooms, or just go run for stuff as we need it. I work in an intensive care unit and this just doesn't seem practical. I was just wondering if this were really the case or has our management misinterpreted information they received. Any help would be appreciated.

[neneRN, BSN, RN]

We have supply carts in every pt room in the ER. There is one drawer on each cart that holds all of our needles, syringes, and saline flushes. Other items such as tape or electrodes don't need to be locked up as its a safety issue, and how is a pt going to come to any harm with a few stickies? This drawer is SUPPOSED to be locked, but in reality never is. I wouldn't even know where to find a key to lock it. But it looks like its locked, that was our big attempt at coming up to standard.

[DusktilDawn]

We are getting ready for our JCAHO survey and our nurse managers found out that an area that a lot of hospitals are being dinged on is having supplies at the bedside, such as syringes, needles, saline vials, saline bullets, EKG electrodes, tape, etc... I am wondering if anybody out there has had a recent JCAHO survey and was this an issue. If so, how are you handling it. We were told we could stuff our pockets, wear a fanny pack, install locked cabinets in all the rooms, or just go run for stuff as we need it. I work in an intensive care unit and this just doesn't seem practical. I was just wondering if this were really the case or has our management misinterpreted information they received. Any help would be appreciated.

Anything that can be considered "medication" including prefilled saline syringes or vials cannot be left out, they have to be in a locked cupboard at our facility, that also includes syringes. We had our prefilled syringes on the counter at the lab station prior to JCAHO coming in a few months ago.

Yea, stuffing our pockets even more isn't exactly a great idea. Frankly a fanny pack would be uncomfortable for me.