Hello everyone,

Our medication administration policy states if a patient refuses a medication, the RN shall document the refusal and notify the prescriber. It was brought to my attention that the notification of the prescriber is likely not happening and it would be a huge burden on the nurses to have to call the physician for every med refusal. We understand high risk meds obviously need to be addressed, but we don't want to change our policy to "call out" certain drug classes. We are looking for ways to ease the burden of RNs by using EPIC to notify physicians. I would like to get a sense of what others are doing.
1. Do you require RNs to notify prescribers on all med refusals?
2. If so, what is the time frame for notification and how is the notification done?
3. Is this spelled out in your policy?

Thank you so much.