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Melt Your Job Stress Away - January 2014 - Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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Page 20 IDEAS That Work DELIVER Rx RIGHT TO RECOVERY Fill Patients' Scripts at Bedside The last thing a patient wants to do after being discharged from outpatient surgery is to try to find an open pharmacy and then wait — in pain — while a pharmacy fills a prescription. For a $5 co-pay, our on-site pharmacist will fill prescriptions and deliver them straight to patients in the recovery unit. Not surprisingly, the bedside prescription program is a hit with patients. About 4 out of 5 patients take advantage of it: 696 patients in October and 636 patients in November. A bright orange form in a patient's chart as well as an advisory in our EMR alert the staff when a patient wants to take advantage of the program. The prescription is filled in the SurgiCentre satellite pharmacy, where pharmacists review patients' records to make sure the new drugs have no adverse reaction to any of the other medications the patient takes. The pharmacist then delivers the prescription directly to PACU, where he educates patients and answers any questions about how to take the drug or what side effects they might expect. Nurses discuss the option of filling the prescription -– which is typically a low-cost generic medication that is commonly used after surgery — while the patient is in pre-op. The only drawback: Patients sometimes don't have $5 in cash. That's because we tell patients not to bring valuables with them. Oftentimes a family member will gladly lend them the money. Joyce Stengel, MSN, RN, CNOR Philadelphia, Pa. Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania joyce.stengel@uphs.upenn.edu

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