Keep an eye on those Rx pads!

talaxandra · Nov 11, 2004

Hi Jo Anne :)

On my ward we keep the prescription pads, discharge scripts and sick leave certificates locked in the pharmacy room, which only nurses and pharmacists have access. This was implemented when we discovered that a division 2 nurse (who had just left) had been filling out certificates for patients!!!

URO-RN · Nov 11, 2004

Hi Jo Anne :)
On my ward we keep the prescription pads, discharge scripts and sick leave certificates locked in the pharmacy room, which only nurses and pharmacists have access. This was implemented when we discovered that a division 2 nurse (who had just left) had been filling out certificates for patients!!!

What happened to her?. Beside losing her license, of course.:)

talaxandra · Nov 12, 2004

Jo Anne, can't you guess? Nothing happened. She'd already moved overseas, and my boss didn't do anything. Well, does literally burying your head in your hands and sighing loudly count? Hmm, thought not. Welcome to my world.

By the way, this thread has 104 hits so far - anyone else have an opinion or comment about prescription pads?

CrunchRN, ADN, RN · Nov 12, 2004

In ten years of working in MD offices you do learn to hide the pads or patients will walk off with them, and many will attempt to do there own prescribing. I often thought if we hear about the occasional one - how many happened that no one knows about? However, usually the people that did this were fairly "brain" challenged and usually got themselves caught by being stupid!:chuckle

flashpoint · Nov 12, 2004

Most of our doctors carry theirs in their pocket. We had a lady steal some script pads about a year ago, so the hospital pulled all of them off the units. We do have a generic pad with the hospital logo on it in Pyxis and all of the pharmacists in town call the doctor to confirm/clarify if a patient brings in a script written on one of those.

ragingmomster, BSN, MSN, RN · Nov 12, 2004

We keep our pads in the drawer at the nurses desk in the hospital. We all know that they belong locked up but most are too lazy to bother. Which brings up the story (2nd hand) of the idiot who stole a prescription and wrote it out for "one pound mofeen", needless to say he got a free ride in a police car.

hypnotic_nurse · Nov 13, 2004

Way back when I was briefly a secretary in a medical office (and didn't know better), I was cleaning out old stuff and came across a load of prescription pads. I took them home for my 4-year-old daughter to play Veterinarian with...she wrote out all KINDS of precriptions for her stuffed animals. :) I have to admit at that time that it NEVER occurred to me that people could or would attempt to write their own scripts.

At all my research nursing jobs, I've written letters for patients stating the date were seen at the office, but I sign them with my name, RN, and include my phone number so the pt's work or school can call me to verify. (If I waited for the MD to do it, it would never be done). Seems to be sufficient for most employers, I've never gotten a phone call.

landonsles · Nov 13, 2004

I was just thinking about this very same topic earlier today. I took my 2 year old to the pediatrician's office. The doc wrote out a script, and then left me in the room alone with the whole pad! Now, I know I am an honest person, and the doctor has known me for 9 years, but still....

On a side note, I worked in a dental office for four years. All of our scripts were done on the computer, so there was no fear about the patients stealing them. But we did have a girl who worked up front that was calling in meds for herself under the dentists's DEA #. We tried to get her arrested, but, in Texas, the cops have to witness you picking up a forged RX before they will do anything about it.

ratchit · Nov 13, 2004

My husband is currently investigating a case where a patient stole a Rx pad from her MD clinic and got her narc filled at a local pharmacy.
I've heard of this happening in dentists offices quite often, (one of my nieces worked in a large dentist group)but never in a docs office.
Anyone else?.

One hospital I worked in wanted nurses to keep rx pads in the PACU for doctor convenience. I didn't like having them lying around but beyond putting them in a drawer, there wasn't much I could do.

Then a patient stole and forged a prescription. So the manager wanted the nurses to sign pads out from pharmacy, keep them in the narc cabinet, and track each one that was written- which doc, which patient, the number of each scrip, which drug... Missing sheets were the fault of the nursing staff and subject to discipline.

I wouldn't do it. Doctors wouldn't tell us what they were writing and hated coming to us for each sheet. Some RNs would hand the pad over and we'd find it on the counter. Or we'd have missing ones because docs ran off without talking to us about what they had written and no one knew who to chase down to ask.

Pharmacy backed us up- pads were physician responsibility and property per hospital policy anyway. So then the docs had to carry their own or go sign them out from pharmacy themselves. When they grumbled I smiled sweetly and reminded them that they managed to get through med school and practice medicine all day, surely keeping a prescription pad couldn't be too hard to remember.

jschut, BSN, RN · Nov 13, 2004

I have a few old ones that my husband brought home to me (after cleaning out a retired Dr office) and we use them for junk pads...

I guess it is possible to fake a perscription, but who is really that dumb?

(Or maybe that's a dumb question in itself...)

Blackcat99 · Nov 13, 2004

Yes I've had jobs where these Rx pads are just lying around the nurse's desk areas. In fact, at one of those jobs they had a special meeting because a nurse got ahold of the Rx pad and wrote herself an order for narcotics and got it filled. They were especially worried because they thought with the amount of narcotics she ordered that she was planning to commit suicide. :crying2: