Deficient Medication Storage, Labeling, and Documentation
Penalty
Summary
Surveyors identified multiple deficiencies in the facility's storage and labeling of drugs and biologicals. Several residents' medications, including eye drops and oral solutions, were found without required open dates, expiration dates, or proper storage conditions. For example, one resident's artificial tears and another's Azopt eye drops lacked open dates, and Latanoprost eye drops were not refrigerated as required. Another resident's Anbesol had an unreadable expiration date, and artificial tears for a different resident were past the discard date. Staff interviews confirmed uncertainty about when medications were opened or should be discarded, and acknowledged that medications should be labeled and stored according to policy. Medication carts were observed to contain loose, unlabeled, and expired medications. One cart had a loose pill and an unlabeled bottle of artificial tears, while another had multiple loose pills and expired vitamin B12. An insulin pen was found without a cap or label to identify the resident, and staff could not determine its owner. Staff interviews revealed a lack of knowledge regarding the identification and proper storage of these medications, and staff acknowledged that such practices were not in line with facility policy. In the medication storage room, open bottles of TB testing solution were found without open dates, and the vaccine refrigerator temperature logs were incomplete, with several days missing recorded temperatures. The Director of Nursing confirmed that medications should be dated when opened, labeled, and stored appropriately, and that temperature logs should be completed as per policy. These findings demonstrate a failure to follow established procedures for medication storage, labeling, and documentation.