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IDEAS THAT WORK
MEDICATION EXPIRATIONS
Delineate First- and Last-of-the-Month Dates
W
e've never used anything that was expired, but you can never
be too cautious. Although we do monthly checks to ensure
nothing in our facility has gone past its expiration date, it can
be hard, in the day-to-day rush, to distinguish at a glance between items
that expire on the first of a month and those that expire on the last day. I
realized this was something we needed to flag, so I wrote a quick performance-improvement tool. Nothing fancy, just a short list of what the
problem was, how to fix it and who's involved.
My solution: Highlight the dates on items that expire on the first of a
given month. In the beginning, I went through everything in the center to
do the marking. Now, when RNs unpack and put away new stock, they
simply highlight "September 1, 2013" and the like. It doesn't add any time
to the routine because we always verify expiration dates when receiving
medications into the facility to make sure
nothing sent has expired already (it's happened before!). Highlighting is a simple fix
that gives everyone reassurance at a
glance.
Lori Senetcen, RN
Connecticut Eye Surgery Center South
Milford, Conn.
lorisenetcen@constitutioneye.com
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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 | F E B R U A R Y 2013
