BEDSIDE SERVICE How would your patients like to get their post-op prescriptions filled while they're still in your recovery room?

DELIVER Rx RIGHT TO RECOVERY
Fill Patients' Scripts at Bedside

The last thing a patient wants to do after being discharged from outpatient surgery is to try to find an open pharmacy and then wait — in pain — while a pharmacy fills a prescription. For a $5 co-pay, our on-site pharmacist will fill prescriptions and deliver them straight to patients in the recovery unit.

Not surprisingly, the bedside prescription program is a hit with patients. About 4 out of 5 patients take advantage of it: 696 patients in October and 636 patients in November.

A bright orange form in a patient's chart as well as an advisory in our EMR alert the staff when a patient wants to take advantage of the program. The prescription is filled in the SurgiCentre satellite pharmacy, where pharmacists review patients' records to make sure the new drugs have no adverse reaction to any of the other medications the patient takes. The pharmacist then delivers the prescription directly to PACU, where he educates patients and answers any questions about how to take the drug or what side effects they might expect.

Nurses discuss the option of filling the prescription — which is typically a low-cost generic medication that is commonly used after surgery — while the patient is in pre-op. The only drawback: Patients sometimes don't have $5 in cash. That's because we tell patients not to bring valuables with them. Oftentimes a family member will gladly lend them the money.

Joyce Stengel, MSN, RN, CNOR
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pa.
[email protected]