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SAFETY
Leroy Kromis, PharmD
Products for Airtight Medication Security
Locking anesthesia carts are keeping up with the diverters.
D
rug diversion in
surgery is a
growing concern. It's not only
because people are
looking to get high or
to feed their addictions
by lifting a few
OxyContins, drinking a
few sips of Demerol
SECURE CABINETS Locking cabinets that electronically
control access to drugs are becoming increasingly popular.
left over from a case
and recording it as "waste" or taking a syringe of fentanyl off the sterile
field and replacing it with a needle full of sterile saline solution hidden
in a scrub pocket (tinyurl.com/
kej3lcf). There's also a profit to be made, as in the case of the pharmacy
technician at the University of Miami's Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer
Center who for 3 years pocketed boxes of Neulasta (pegfilgrastim), a
medication used to boost white blood cells to reduce the risk of infection. Neulasta costs about $2,600 per dose. The tech is accused of stealing more than $14 million in cancer drugs and selling them on the black
market. Fortunately, as drug diversion has gotten more sophisticated,
locking anesthesia carts that closely track drugs and keep them secure
have gotten more sophisticated as well.
Make it easy to do the right thing
Ideally, in addition to security, your anesthesia cart should provide
accountability. Alone, a locking secure cart won't protect providers
A U G U S T 2013 | 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
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