Destruction of Patient Home Medications Stored in Pharmacy

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Trecia Swanston
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Joined: 03/26/2018 - 11:11
Destruction of Patient Home Medications Stored in Pharmacy

We are revising our patient home med policy and wanted to see what others were doing in regards to destruction of patient home meds. Please let me know which process you follow and I will summarize for the group.

Process #1
• Do you destroy the meds a certain number of days after admission (e.g. 30 days) regardless of if the patient is still in the hospital?
• If this is your process how do you ensure the meds do not get destroyed for those patients that are still in house after the cutoff date?
• What challenges have you had with this process?

Process #2
• Do you destroy a certain number of days after the patient has been discharged?
• If this is your process do you have reach out to the patient to give them an opportunity to pick up the med?
• Do you call the provider to see if those meds should be destroyed?
• What challenges have you had with this process?

Thanks in advance.

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