Unattended and Unlocked Medication Cart in Nursing Station
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 labeled 'AM med cart' was observed unattended and unlocked outside the medication room in Nursing Station 1. The area could be accessed by non-nursing staff, including CNAs, who had key access to the nursing station. During the observation, the DON confirmed that the medication cart was not locked and acknowledged that it should have been secured. Facility policy requires that medications be stored safely and securely, accessible only to licensed nursing or pharmacy personnel. The failure to lock the medication cart when unattended constituted a breach of this policy.