Consider this scenario: Just as you are preparing for morning med pass at a large city jail a man-down alarm is sounded. Your partner is assigned to emergencies today and she grabs the emergency bag and heads to the announced floor. You continue your preparations, making note that you may be handling both passes this morning if your partner is tied up for very long. A few minutes later, as you are rolling the cart out of the medication room, a call comes in. The man-down is an officer assault, the entire facility is in lockdown, and morning medication rounds are cancelled. Now what?

In traditional health care settings, emergencies may delay some services but accommodations are made to overcome resource limitations to keep care delivery on schedule. Delivering health care is the prime mission of these organizations so plans for emergency need are ever present. In a correctional setting, health care is a support service and not the primary organizational mission. Safety trumps health care needs at all times. Yet, nurses working in secure settings have an obligation to make sure needed medical care, including medication, is provided in a timely manner. It definitely takes determination and creativity to pull this off.

To be effective, many medications must be delivered during specific times related to meals or blood levels of prior doses. Yet, medication timing may be affected by any number of security needs in a correctional setting. Security administration does not often consider the implications of delays or cancellation of medication administration processes when making security decisions. It is often left to health care staff to determine ways to provide the required medication in a timely manner to remain effective in treating the patient condition.

Making Choices

Therefore, it is important to establish a working relationship with security administration and develop a mutual understanding of the therapeutic nature of medication administration and the implication of timing in that therapy. Often a mutually agreeable solution can be reached when medication administration must be delayed or cancelled for a security reason. Here are steps to take when normal medication administration processes are halted.

• Review medications for the particular timing delay/cancellation to determine if any are time-critical (see table below).
• Shifting non-time critical medications to the next administration time frame. For example, daily or weekly medication can be moved to a later medication administration time.
• Consult with prescribers for any gray areas. For example, a stable patient on an anticoagulant may be able to have their medication moved to the evening administration time while a patient with fluctuating INR levels may not be able to delay a dose.
• Negotiating a method for delivering time-critical medications. Methods can include
  • Cell-side administration: A nurse takes the medication directly to the inmate in the housing unit.
  • Officer escort to the medical unit: Specific patients needing time-critical medications are brought to health care for their doses.

Some settings also allow officer-delivered medication. This requires a clear policy and procedure in addition to a review of the state nurse practice act regarding medication delivery and medication administration. There are many safety concerns with this approach and it is not the best option, if it can be avoided.

In all cases, the process for response to medication administration delay should be written into a policy and procedure that is approved by both security and health care leadership. That way there will be no surprises when an emergency situation like the scenario above arises.

Time Critical and Non-Time Critical Medications

The following listing provided by the Institute of Safe Medication Practice is a helpful guide for making determinations when normal medication administration processes are interrupted.

Time Critical Medications

• Antibiotics
• Anticoagulants
• Insulin
• Anticonvulsants
• Immunosuppressive agents
• Pain medication
• Medications prescribed to be administered within a specific time period
• Medications that must be administered apart from other medications for optimal therapeutic effect
• Medications prescribed more frequently than every 4 hours
• Medications that require administration related to before, after, or with meals

Non Time Critical Medications

• Daily, weekly, or monthly medications
• Medications prescribed more frequently than daily but less than every 4 hours (bid, tid) if not in the time critical listing

How do you handle cancelled medication passes? Share your procedures in the comments section of this post.

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