BY DONNA ROGERS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
KEEPING TABS ON MEDS A methodical dispensary process reduces staff time as well as pharmaceutical and financial waste, while increasing safety of those incarcerated.
Omnicell XT Automated Dispensing Cabinets (ADCs) provide several safety benefits for both the health care worker and the inmate.
if dispensing medications was ever easy, pharmacy delivery systems just got that much more difficult due to COVID-19. Preparing medications for a transient population is time consuming and labor intensive. Medication inventory management and delivery to the patient must be accurate to prevent missing medications, unlabeled doses, undelivered meds and dosing errors. Of course, carrying too large an inventory can go to waste when an offender is moved or released, resulting in financial losses for the facility.
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18 CORRECTIONS FORUM • MAY/JUNE 2020
“The act of writing the prescription may be the least complicated process in a correctional facility’s medication use system,” points out Deleca ReynoldsBarnes, PharmD, vice president of Pharmacy, with Wellpath (formerly known as Correct Care Solutions), a healthcare company focusing on corrections based in Nashville, Tennessee. Filling regular prescriptions quickly and efficiently when health care workers may be short staffed and population are falling sick is all the more important in today’s environment. Dispensing medications
methodically in corrections facilities requires a comprehensive and multi-faceted process, says Reynolds-Barnes. It all begins at intake, she adds. Before putting pen to paper (or actually typing the prescription into the electronic health record), the medication history is imperative to ensure the appropriate medications are prescribed. Following a review of the intake medication records, medication reconciliation should be completed, which is the comprehensive evaluation of patient’s medication regimen, due to a transition in care, to avoid med-
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