Failure to Secure Medications and Medication Cart
Penalty
Summary
The facility failed to ensure that drugs and biologicals were properly secured and stored according to professional standards and facility policy. During a medication pass observation, a registered nurse left a medication cart unlocked and unattended while searching for a resident's medication in a storage room. The medication cart was accessible and unsecured during this time, as confirmed by the Director of Nursing, who was able to open the drawers in the nurse's absence. The nurse later returned and was informed of the unsecured cart. Additionally, medications were found unsecured at the bedsides of two residents. One resident, with no cognitive impairment, had a tube of prescribed antifungal cream on the bedside table, which the resident reported self-administering. Another resident, also with no cognitive impairment, had two tubes of cream in a zip lock bag on the bedside table, and stated that they were not applying the medication themselves nor receiving it from staff. In both cases, the Unit Manager confirmed that the medications should have been stored on the medication cart, not at the bedside.