Unattended Medication Cart Left Unlocked
Penalty
No penalty information released
The penalty, as released by CMS, applies to the entire inspection this citation is part of, covering all citations and f-tags issued, not just this specific f-tag. For the complete original report, please refer to the 'Details' section.
Summary
A medication cart was observed left unlocked and unattended in the facility, with no nurse present in the area at the time. Shortly after, a nurse returned and locked the cart, confirming that she had left it unlocked while accompanying the DON into the medication room. The nurse acknowledged that the cart should remain locked when unattended to prevent unauthorized access to medications. The DON and another nurse both confirmed the expectation that medication carts be locked at all times when not in use, in accordance with the facility's policy and procedure, which requires all compartments containing drugs and biologicals to be locked when not in use.