PRN Psychotropic Medication Order Lacked Required Stop Date
Penalty
Summary
The deficiency involves the facility’s failure to ensure an as-needed (PRN) psychotropic medication order included a required duration or stop date. One resident, identified as having a diagnosis of anxiety on a face sheet printed on 2/17/26, had an order on the same date’s Order Summary Report for lorazepam, a psychotropic medication, to be administered every four hours as needed for anxiety, with no duration or stop date specified. During an interview on 2/27/26 at 10:23 AM, the facility pharmacist stated that a PRN psychotropic medication such as lorazepam requires a stop date. The facility’s undated “Use of Psychotropic Medication(s)” policy states that PRN psychotropic medications shall be limited to no more than 14 days unless the attending physician documents in the medical record a rationale for extending the order and indicates a specific duration. This lack of a documented stop date or specified duration for the resident’s PRN lorazepam order, despite the facility policy and pharmacist’s statement that such orders must be time-limited, constitutes the identified deficiency.
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