May is Medication Month! Join us as we celebrate Medication Management and take a deeper look into the in’s and out’s of Medications. Who says Medication Management isn’t fun?
Do you ever wonder why we have you fill out paperwork and we want it to be exact? Well, have you ever played Telephone? It’s when one person whispers into another’s ear and then that person whispers into the next and so on. What happens when you are the last person? What you hear is rarely the same what the first person said! What if
when each person whispered he or she also handed over a paper with the written sentence? Much more accurate! Therefore, each time you interact with a medication a detailed, written account helps us stay accurate despite many people passing it along.
1. Order/Prescription: Make sure it has ALL six rights. (It is the documentation.
2. Pick Up/Pharmacy: Check the 6 Rights with your Medical Appointment Form or copy of the prescription. Pharmacies can make mistakes too. We do not want their potential mistake to become our mistake because we did not check.
3. Communication: Speak with your supervisor right away about who fills the pillbox and who writes on the MTR. Turn in the MAF and/or copy of prescription within 24 hours to communicate with the office.
4. Medication Tracking Record (MTR): If given permission, you can fill in the last blank spot on the MTR. If there is not a blank, please hand-draw one. Make sure to write it exactly as the doctor’s order says. Check it. Double check it. Have someone else check it. Also, continue normal use of QS Med.
5. Pillbox: Coordinate with your supervisor on who will add the new medication to the pillbox.
Check the 6 Rights at each step! This is important with new, discontinued, or changed medications. We always need every right to match on every piece of paper. Otherwise it ends up like a bad game of telephone and the client could suffer.
You can find more of our Medication May posts here and here.