Failure to Properly Label and Secure Medications and MARs
Penalty
Summary
Surveyors observed that staff failed to properly label and store medications for two residents during medication administration. Specifically, an LPN administered timolol maleate ophthalmic solution to one resident and Basaglar KwikPen insulin to another without either medication being dated upon opening, as required by facility policy. The eye drops had been opened and dispensed over two months prior, and the insulin pen had also been dispensed several days before the observation, but neither contained an open date. The LPN confirmed during interviews that the medications were not dated as required. Additionally, the LPN left a medication cart unlocked and unattended in the hallway while administering medication to a third resident. The computer on top of the cart, displaying the resident's Medication Administration Record (MAR), was also left open and visible. The cart was not within the LPN's line of sight during this time. Both the LPN and the Director of Nursing acknowledged during interviews that the cart should have been locked and the medications and MAR secured according to facility policy.