OTC medication one bottle-multiple participants

[ggcolonnello]

Good day,

First post ever. Hopefully your knowledge and experience can help me understand better the following law I have come across with. If I can recall correctly, my school nurse a licensed health care professional had a stock of over the counter medications which she would use only when thought appropriate. All students had to have medication administration permission from their representatives (parents) and a clearance from their doctor indicating no potential medication interaction with current medication therapies, known allergies to certain medications, or previous adverse effects from the OTCs. This model is also seen in adult day cares at least in Miami, where OTC meds are only administered with a standing order or prescription both from their doctors, and a medication administration permission from their caregivers. Like schools, ADC usually have one OTC bottle for all participants (unless the participant brought their own supply, which is then only used for that one participant) and only the nurse dispenses the medications. The new law for ADC states that each center has to have one bottle of whatever OTC med for each participant. Meaning if you have 100 participants, and all make use of acetaminophen or ibuprofen, then the center has to have 100 medication bottles. This is how the law specifically reads:

(l) Over the counter (OTC) products. For purposes of this subsection, the term OTC includes, but is not limited to, OTC medications, vitamins, nutritional supplements and nutraceuticals, hereafter referred to as OTC products, which can be sold without a preescription.

1. A stock supply of OTC products for multiple participants use is not permitted in any center.

2. OTC products, including those prescribed by a licensed health care provider, must be labeled with the participant's name and the manufacturer;s label with directions for use, or the licensed health care provider's direction for use. No other labeling requirements are necessary nor should be required.

3. Participants or their representatives may purchase OTC products from an establishment of their choice.

If standing orders or prescriptions are used to administer these meds (as per center policy), then this law to me is not targeting safety concerns. The nurse is the only one dispensing the medication, meaning sanitary concerns should not be an issue (since clients are not having contact with the medication bottle or meds inside bottle). The only reason I could think is monetary reasons, were the center is not required to hold a stock of OTC medications.

Please let me know the reason behind this law, maybe I am not thinking outside the box.

[coughdrop.2.go, BSN, RN]

Weird law but I'm wondering if you could get around that by buying boxes of OTCs with individual, pre-wrapped doses. I'm a school nurse and although I do not have ibuprofen or acetaminophen I have triple antibiotic ointment and hydrocortisone cream in individual packets that I hand to students.

[txredheadnurse, BSN, RN]

Weird law but I'm wondering if you could get around that by buying boxes of OTCs with individual, pre-wrapped doses. I'm a school nurse and although I do not have ibuprofen or acetaminophen I have triple antibiotic ointment and hydrocortisone cream in individual packets that I hand to students.

I like this solution but the second section the OP quoted mentions labels with specific patient names, prescriber etc. so the individual dose packets wouldn't meet this requirement unless the entire box was labeled which again defeats the purpose of having a stock medication.

OP as to the rationale who knows why the law was written that way. It seems to me the only feasible solution is each patient will have to bring their own labeled OTC meds to ADC. Hope you have sufficient storage space for that.

[DedHedRN]

Stupid law. Really stupid. Sometimes I just want to beat my head against the wall and scream at the stupidness of things.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

oy, get in line, get in line, lpl.

Stupid law. Really stupid. Sometimes I just want to beat my head against the wall and scream at the stupidness of things.

[JenTheSchoolRN, BSN, RN]

Wow. I'm also a school nurse and I do stock OTCs to give with parent permission and under a physician's standing orders. I used to stock individual packets with two tabs of either acetaminophen or ibuprofen, but it was too expensive. I have 400+ student, I can't imagine that many bottles...

My mind goes back to those individual packets that you can get at airports and sometimes in restrooms, with 2-4 pills and all the directions/labeling on it. Under this, could the patient's name be added to something like that?