Failure to Discard Medications with Illegible Expiration Dates
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to properly discard two multidose medications with illegible expiration dates found on two separate medication carts. During medication administration, an LPN was observed with a bottle of aspirin 81 mg tablets that had an unreadable expiration date. The LPN confirmed she could not determine the expiration date and admitted she did not check the date before administering the medication. Similarly, an RN was found with a bottle of melatonin 3 mg tablets with an illegible expiration date and stated she would dispose of it, acknowledging she had not noticed the label was unclear as she did not typically administer that medication on her shift. The facility's policy requires nurses to check all medications for expiration and deterioration before administration and to immediately remove any outdated or illegible medications from stock. Interviews with the DON and Infection Preventionist confirmed that staff are expected to ensure medications are not expired and to discard any with unclear labeling. However, the observations revealed that these procedures were not consistently followed, resulting in the presence of medications with illegible expiration dates on medication carts.