Human Resources Perspective
Policy/Procedure: Policies and procedures need to be up-to-date and meet current guidelines, including resident rights.
Implementation: Educate all staff responsible for distributing medications about proper procedure, including the five rights. Staff should be trained on medication diversion signs to report to senior management.
Audit: Periodically perform internal and external audits of the medication distribution process.
A nurse at a nursing home in Washington lost her license for 90 days for allegedly stealing drugs from two residents of the facility. Police say the woman, 46, was caught on video on separate occasions taking pills from medication carts, a drawer, and a medication room and swallowing them. The probable cause states video footage shows the nurse on Aug. 5, 2018, at 5:31 p.m., at the nursing home’s south hall medical cart. She then opened the second drawer of the medication cart and popped a pill out of a bubble pack, put it in her mouth, took a drink and swallowed. On Aug. 10, 2018, at 3:52 p.m., video footage showed that the nurse went into the medication room and when she came out, she threw her head back after taking a drink and swallowing a pill. A third incident occurred less than two hours after the previous one. This time, at 5:03 p.m., she was shown at the north hall medicine cart where she opened the drawer, removed pills, and looked to her right to see if anyone was watching. She then put a pill in her mouth and swallowed. Just 16 minutes later, at 5:19 p.m., she was again caught on camera walking down the hall with a pill cup in her hand and appeared to put a pill in her mouth. She’s also seen taking a drink and swallowing the pill in the footage.
