Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Subscribers

OR Excellence Awards 2015 - September 2015 - Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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1 5 9 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5 | O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E they dispose of at the end of the day? How many narcotic administrations do they handle compared to colleagues on the same shift? Are they disposing of wastage immedi- ately? Constant vigilance? Properly performed manual audits eliminate a great deal of drug diversion risk for your facility, but can't end it entirely. Medication can still be swiped from the sterile field or a nurse might divert a small amount of painkiller from a filled syringe. It's nearly impossible to catch those types of thefts. The best you can do is put up as many barriers as possible. In the wrong hands, all drugs, not just narcotics, can do significant harm to patients and other individuals. You and your clinical man- agers can't observe all that goes on in your facility on a daily basis, so every staff member has a responsibility to ensure patient safety, and medication security is a big part of that obligation. They also have legal and ethical responsibilities to report anyone who's acting suspi- cious or whose behavior has changed noticeably. It's better to point out suspicions of abuse than run the risk of letting abusers jeopardize their own well-being and the safety of the patients in their care. OSM 5 Completing audits in plain view puts doubt in the mind of a would-be stealer. Can I get away with this? Maybe not. Mr. Karwoski (john@jdjconsulting.net) is president and founder of JDJ Consulting in Wenonah, N.J. Mr. Karwoski will discuss best practices in medication management at OR Excellence next month in San Antonio (orexcellence.com).

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