Expired and Improperly Maintained Supplies on Crash Carts
Penalty
Summary
Surveyors identified a deficiency related to the facility’s failure to ensure that drugs and medical supplies on two crash carts were properly stored and disposed of in accordance with facility policy and professional standards. The facility’s “Storage of Medications” policy, dated 1/8/26 (previously 6/1/25), required that discontinued, outdated, or deteriorated drugs be returned to the dispensing pharmacy or destroyed. During an observation of the 100-Hall crash cart, surveyors found multiple items that were either expired or not properly maintained, including a Yankauer catheter with its sterile packaging open, a box of acetaminophen suppositories expiring 12/2024, a bottle of 0.9% sodium chloride solution expiring 5/18/24, IV start kits expiring 4/30/24 and 9/7/25, a concentrator mask with tubing expiring 03/2025, connection tubing expiring 06/2012, a box of glucose gel expiring 02/2025, lubricating jelly packets expiring 06/10/2021, an IV catheter expiring 9/1/22, and normal saline flushes expiring 2/3/25 and 10/31/25. A similar observation of the 200-Hall crash cart revealed additional expired or soon-to-expire medical supplies, including a box of glucose gel expiring 02/2025, a box of acetaminophen suppositories expiring 12/2024, IV start kits expiring 5/16/25 and 8/31/24, normal saline flushes expiring 2/3/25, and an IV catheter expiring 8/31/25. These findings demonstrated that the facility did not consistently remove or properly manage outdated or deteriorated medications and supplies on both crash carts as required by its own policy. In a subsequent interview, the Nursing Home Administrator and the Director of Nursing confirmed that the facility failed to ensure that medical supplies on the two crash carts were properly stored and/or disposed of, in violation of 28 Pa Code 201.14(a) regarding the responsibility of the licensee.
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