What is the med pass like at your DOC

Eirene, ASN, RN · Mar 15, 2010

Yes... it's that bad.

We have a system with a sallyport. There are two windows. We literally pass meds to hundreds of inmates a night. If you have a good team- we can kick 'em out in 1.5 hours.

It was really intimidating at first, but I've grown acustomed to it. It's actually kind-of fun when you have another fun nurse and officer working with you.

newtress, LPN · Mar 15, 2010

Oh.. my

Blackcat99 · Mar 15, 2010

When I use to work corrections, the med pass was not too bad. The inmates like drugs so they will hurry to the med line to get their meds. If an inmate is on any narcotics or tranquilizers like xanax or ativan etc. you will hear them say to you " The day/eve nurse forgot to give me my ativan this morning. I need you to give me that missed ativan right now." You will also sometimes have inmates show up in the med line c/o chest pain. If you have another nurse at the infirmary while you are out on the pods doing the meds, you can send the chest pain person to the infirmary nurse. If it's a small place and there is no other nurse, then you have to stop the meds, return to the infirmary and do an EKG.

nursejudy15209 · Mar 15, 2010

Hi,

'Bout time somebody discussed the med pass at correctional facilities! Let's just say that I pour as many meds in one night as I would pour for an entire week at any Nursing Home.

It takes me (not all nurses are slow like me) from 2:30 in the afternoon till about 5:00 P.M. for me to pour 8 books of meds. Each book represents one pod. I leave one book to pour at 8:00 P.M. while everybody in the building is locked in for "count".

In addition to pouring meds, we flag MARS (medication administration records) for re-orders and KOP's --which means the medicine is kept on the inmate's person.

Those meds include but are not limited to blood pressure meds, cholesterol meds, vitamins, ect., except when the inmate is on psychotropic medication. If that is the case, we must include the "health" meds in with our med pass. Nobody on psych meds is allowed to have any type of medication in their cell.

I don't know how others in the country keep track of new orders, renewed orders, or changes, but our system is all hand written. We do not use computers for cross reference when the existence of an order is questioned. If there is a question about an order, we must either pull the chart (from Medical Records) or call them and ask them to locate the chart. If the chart is located, we review it for new orders that might have been missed.

The jail I work for is Allegheny County Jail and our census (in the building) hovers around 2,500 or more. The med passes are divided between 4 assignments and 4 nurses on both shifts. We house a clinic, an infirmary, and mental health pods not included in our regular assignments. We also have a dentist available in the building on certain days of the week and a lab technition to draw blood samples.

ACJ is a busy institution and those that can handle the workload without breaking any of the rules survive there. I have had my doubts along the way, but this August marks my 4th anniversary and as far as I can tell -- in these past 4 years, not too much has progressed toward a more condensed way of doing things. It's tons of paperwork and lots of standing at the counters to dole out those precious medications to the inmates.

Just a quickie glance at how this particular institution handles the medication pass. What about some others throughout the country???

Blindsided · Mar 16, 2010

Thank you corrections nurses for some interesting education. What is a sallyport? Thanks. I followed a jail nurse a couple times and really enjoyed it. Always have been interested in corrections.

newtress, LPN · Mar 16, 2010

I have always been interested in corrections and wanted to get into the Cali D of Corrections. But I started having these premenitions that the med pass would blow me out of the water. Heck, I have blazed a trail and quit two LTC positions because the med pass for 50 people took darn near the entire shift. I'm rethinking corrections. I asked the question because I just never hear it really mentioned on the corrections forum, but suspected it wouldn't be an easy med pass. I currently work at a psych hospital, and there too, we do all the MARS/revisions/d/c meds/changed meds all by hand to paper also. But the med pass is no where what you describe. My sincere respect and admiration goes out to all the corrections nurses. :uhoh3:

Blackcat99 · Mar 16, 2010

A sallyport is an opening in each cell door where you can give things to inmates without opening their cell door. You can give a dinner tray, meds, etc. thru a sallyport. I have worked both LTC and DOC. If anyone says that a med pass at DOC is more difficult than a LTC med pass they are lying. Doing a med pass at LTC takes forever and is so much much harder to do. A LTC med pass is the very worse. No doubt about it.

Eirene, ASN, RN · Mar 16, 2010

I like to think of a sallyport as a front porch. You can only open one door at a time. They are big, heavy, locked doors.

In my DOC, the little port in the actual door is called a cuffport.

Hope this helps.

Blindsided · Mar 17, 2010

Yep, thanks. Now I know exactly what a sallyport is. I remember them from when I followed her. :)

newtress, LPN · Mar 17, 2010

NurseJudy posted that she has poured in one night what she would give for a week in a nursing home. Is this considered uncommon or common? That's why I said I would rethink doing corrections because I can not imagine doing a med pass of that capacity.

danrodz · Mar 21, 2010

I work at a county jail and the med pass I do is similar in volume to what has been described before. On a pass I serve anywhere from 80 - 120 inmates (depending on the census numbers) along with renewals, new orders, referrals and so on. It seemed like a lot at first (and it certainly was very tiring) but you acclimate pretty quickly and now I can get through it in about 2 hours. I love it too, the pace is very exciting.