8. Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Facilities
In 2006-2007, Wisconsin's Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS)
issued the following two memos to assisted living facilities and nursing homes.
They provisionally waive a portion of the DHFS's previous rule requiring
prescription medicines to be destroyed within 72 hours of a practitioner's order
discontinuing its use, the resident's discharge (unless the resident needs the
medication at a new location), the resident's death, loss of medication dosage
from integrity, removal of the medication from the medication package, or the
medications' expiration date.
Instead, the medicines may be secured in a locked area separate from other
medicines in the facility. This is intended to allow time for proper
disposal, since the short time frame might otherwise require medicines to
be flushed down the drain. The memo lists appropriate disposal options for
non-reusable medicines and identifies donation options for unopened, reusable
drugs.
Memos issued by DHFS
Back to Table of Contents
|
