3 Benefits of a Medication Cart Audit
Your facility’s medication carts are nothing less than small, rolling pharmacies. Your patients rely on the medications within, and your staff relies on every cart being properly set up, stocked, and maintained.
When a medication cart is disorganized, poorly stocked, or unsecured, your facility could be exposed to civil or regulatory liability for incorrect dosing. Or, even worse, a patient could suffer unnecessarily.
At Angus Lake, we offer medication inspection – one of our trained experts will visit your facility and audit your medication carts. During each audit, we’ll be checking for three things:
#1: Your Cart Must Have Proper Storage and Labeling
Of the hundreds or even thousands of medications your facility keeps on hand, how many look almost identical when removed from their packaging? How many have special storage requirements? How many could be potentially deadly when presented to the wrong patient?
During a cart audit, a pharmacy professional will look into each drawer and ensure that each cart’s medication is appropriately labeled and stored. We’ll ensure that your storage and labeling are fully compliant with applicable laws and regulations and that cart organization is set up to minimize the potential for medication inaccuracy and cross-contamination.
#2: Your Cart Must Provide Adequate Security
Whether you have state-of-the-art carts with digital access control and logins or basic lock-and-key security, a cart audit will examine how you keep your facility’s medications from falling into the wrong hands. Medication theft is a significant source of facility deficiencies and can burden your operation with high costs when prescription drugs go astray.
During the audit, we’ll look at the security features of your medication carts and make recommendations for ensuring that your facility complies with state and federal laws regarding drug access.
#3: Your Cart Must Be Checked For Medication Expiry
One of the most common facility deficiencies is improperly disposing of expired medications. With hundreds of dispensations each day, your providers can easily fail to notice the small lettering indicating the expiration date of a particular bottle of pills.
During your cart audit, the pharmacy specialist will examine each medication and properly dispose of any that have passed their expiration.
Angus Lake Healthcare is your local pharmacy consultant, serving facilities and their residents across Central Georgia.
Don’t risk a deficiency report or unnecessary liability – contact our team for a time- and worry-saving cart audit. Schedule a consultation today to learn more: 478-233-1828.
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