Choosing a medication packaging system for your community can be a daunting task.\u00a0 Which one is safest for my residents?\u00a0 Which one is easiest for my staff?\u00a0 Should I use single unit dose or multi-dose packaging? There are not right or wrong answers.\u00a0 Below are some tips to help you choose the packaging that works best for your community.<\/p>\n
In order to make an informed decision regarding packaging for your residents, you must assess your residents\u2019 acuity, the community\u2019s physical layout, your licensure requirements, and staff comfort level with medication management.<\/p>\n
First, if you have multiple medication changes and high-acuity residents, multi-dose packaging may not be the best choice for you.\u00a0 Next, if your community is very large or has several floors, you might wish to avoid unit dose cards, as they are bulky and require lots of storage space.\u00a0 In Georgia, if your staff is assisting with medications and is not allowed or trained to administer them, the rules require that \u201coriginal pharmacy packaging be in front of the resident.\u201d\u00a0 For that reason, you would want to avoid bulky, large packaging.\u00a0 Finally, the understanding of your staff to be competent in handling medication changes, order changes, and overall medication management should be a big consideration in what packging type you choose.<\/p>\n
There is no \u201cone size fits all\u201d when it comes to medication packaging.\u00a0 Punch cards are single unit dose and make changes very easy.\u00a0 However, it\u2019s imperative that your staff is carefully reading and interpreting orders and know when the medication should be given.\u00a0 This system is also large and requires a large amount of storage space.\u00a0 Strip packages are much easier for staff because medications are packaged the way they should be given and it takes up very little space, but it\u2019s also more difficult to handle medication changes in the middle of the cycle than with unit dose.\u00a0 Other multi-dose packaging systems that have multiple medications in a sealed bubble or cup are safe and easy for staff to use, but they\u2019re bulky and require a higher level of staff competence when dosing changes are made in the middle of a cycle.<\/p>\n
At Guardian Pharmacy of Atlanta, we know that choosing \u00a0medication packaging is not an easy decision to make.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we have several packaging options for you to choose from, and we have pharmacist and technician experts that can help you in your decision, as well as maintaining the system you choose.<\/p>\n
If you would like to learn more about what Guardian Pharmacy Atlanta has to offer you, please call the pharmacy at 770-635-3301, or our consultant pharmacist, Lori Newcomb, at 404-309-4958 to learn more about your options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Choosing a medication packaging system for your community can be a daunting task. Here are some tips to help you make the right choice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpautop","category-1","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/guardianpharmacy.com\/georgia-atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/guardianpharmacy.com\/georgia-atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/guardianpharmacy.com\/georgia-atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guardianpharmacy.com\/georgia-atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guardianpharmacy.com\/georgia-atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/guardianpharmacy.com\/georgia-atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guardianpharmacy.com\/georgia-atlanta\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/guardianpharmacy.com\/georgia-atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guardianpharmacy.com\/georgia-atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guardianpharmacy.com\/georgia-atlanta\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}