Unlocked Med Carts and Expired Medications Found During Audit
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves failure to ensure medications were secured in locked medication carts and that expired medications were removed from use. On entry to the facility, the North Hall medication cart was observed unlocked and unattended while an LPN walked away down the hall to a resident room, with no other nursing staff present around the cart. Later, the same medication cart in the nursing station area was again observed unlocked with no licensed nursing staff present, and the surveyor waited 10 minutes before encountering a CNA and requesting to speak with the MDS RN. The MDS RN stated that medication carts were to be locked when not in use and when no nursing staff were present, but this had not occurred. During an audit of the South Hall medication cart with an LPN present, two bottles of Milk of Magnesia were found with a manufacturer-printed expiration date of 10/25, and the LPN acknowledged these should have been discarded but had not been. The same audit revealed white, fine powder debris along the length of the back edge of the third drawer of the medication cart. The LPN stated that medication carts were cleaned monthly and should not have had debris in the drawers. The MDS RN also stated that expired medications should have been removed from the medication cart, but this had not been done.
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