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check them into storage. If one person signs out the medications for
use, another person should perform monthly audits to ensure the meds
are used properly. The last thing you want is a call from the business
office asking why the surgical department is ordering excessive
amounts of oxycodone.
In early February 2008, Director of Pharmacy Matt Moss issued a verbal
warning to Pharmacy Tech David Grimsley for failing to refill an automated
medication dispensing cabinet in the cath lab at Methodist Richardson
Medical Center in Richardson, Texas. Two weeks later, court records show,
Mr. Moss slapped Mr. Grimsley with a written warning for failing to stock
antibiotics in automated dispensing cabinets in the ER, outpatient surgery
department and main operating rooms, and for making several errors while
restocking emergency crash carts. Later that month, Mr. Grimsley received a
second written warning for misfiling 2 anesthesia boxes, but signing off on
the contents before delivery to the OR. He was terminated shortly after this
third strike for improper medication stocking.
3. The stocking errors
Never assume drugs are stocked correctly, even in automated dispensing cabinets designed, in part, to eliminate medication errors by requiring staff to scan bar codes on medications to open corresponding storage bins. Bar codes reduce the likelihood that wrong drugs end up in
wrong drawers, but they don't completely eliminate the possibility: You
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O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | M A R C H 2013
