Friday, February 25, 2011

Overkill, overdose

We do med reconciliation in the ER on every single patient. I ask them what prescription meds and/or OTC meds they take, they tell me, and I enter them in the computer. Sometimes they give me a list, sometimes they hand me a bag with 6 or 7 med bottles. With nursing home patients you know you're going to spend 15 minutes searching through the chart and then entering 23 meds, but at least they are on two or three pages and usually in alphabetical order.

And then sometimes you get a patient that defies all expectations.

Like the patient whom EMS dropped off with a suitcase of meds.

A suitcase. There were ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN pill bottles in the case. I know, because I counted them. And read them. And entered them in the computer. Every single one.

Face palm.

7 comments:

Erica Rose said...

I don't understand. Were some of the bottles from the 90's? 80's? Even w/ every freakin disease I can reasonably think of, I can't come up w/ 119 meds that one single person could be on. Wow.

L said...

Nah, a lot of them were duplicates - it was a matter of sorting through and figuring out what was up to date or not.

Anonymous said...

There is something fundamentally wrong with people that pick up their medications in a LARGE box, not bag. And I have seen this in the pharmacy where I work - scary!

murgatr
Pharm. Tech. RDC '06

Frazzled-Razzle-RN said...

Oh.my.goodness, that's a lot of meds.

Anonymous said...

And how many doctors does this patient have? Is it in the double digits Because there is NO FREAKIN' way that one or two doctors are writing these...

Christie said...

Up til now, the most I'd ever seen is 38. And those were all current meds, not including OTC PRNs, which the patient took lots of, too.
Wow. 119. I'm still trying to pick my jaw up off the floor. I can only imagine your frustration.

rapnzl rn said...

After recently spending two hour's worth of every spare minute available in a 'let's fill every bed NOW frenzy' to verify a 15-page med rec on a confused patient admitted from a NH, I stand in awe. A suitcase full of meds would have blood shooting from my eyes.

I am not worthy.