Ongoing debate at work: can medically ordered Ensure/Pedialyte etc be stored in the medication fridge?
I have searched everywhere and cannot find something that clarifies this either way.
Posted Mar 22, 2023, 5:59 PM UTC
According to the TJC rules, medication and food need to be stored separately. Medications have to be stored in a dedicated refrigerator, with tighter temp controls, and no food items can be placed there.
Even if you've got a medical order for food, that doesn't make them not-food. They are still food and cannot go in the medication fridge.
The odd exception is beer. If you've got a medical order for beer for a specific patient, that can be kept in the medication fridge.
Thank you! That was what I thought, but I was getting push-back since “it’s considered a med” if it’s ordered. Ok - but so’s a bacon sandwich if it’s ordered, and I wouldn’t put that in there! Do you by any chance have the JCAHO link/code to that policy?
Beer gets even crazier than that as it depends on how and why it was ordered and who supplies it. When working as a pharm tech, TJC got all bent out of shape over semantics.
Hospital had a nursing home attached to it. Some residents there could get a MD ordered beer/wine with dinner or special occasions birthday, New Year’s Eve, Passover, Super Bowl Sunday etc. pharmacy would get beer from dietary, label it in pharmacy and send it up to the floor for medical detox and put it in the med fridge. TJC thought we were bringing down western civilization and making Florence Nightingales ghost weep. Dietary purchased it so it had to go into the food fridge, even though dispensed by pharmacy.
Pharm Director ask what would happen if pharmacy purchased the beer direct from a store and dispensed it. Then it magically can go into the med fridge, as it’s obviously now a medication.
Solution was for purchasing dept to buy for the hospital, then allocate to dietary and pharmacy. This made TJC happy.
I was over in the corner for all of this wondering if/when they were going to get to anything actually pt safety related.
I was under the impression that those didn’t require refrigeration if unopened
They don't require it, but they're better when cold. Some of them are pretty gross at room temperature.
Ahhh okay I see. I mean at that point I would ask your facility/pharmacy at see what they want to do. We encounter that issue at my work with breast milk but almost in the opposite way- breast milk isn’t technically a medication nor is it “ordered”, but it DOES need to be stored and specific controlled temperatures. Because I work OB we have a separate fridge just for breast milk. I would think since the temp of the ensure doesn’t technically matter for its effects, you should be able to store it in a food fridge, but I’d make sure your facility is cool with that.
Just store in pt pantry with pt label
Why can't it be unopened, labeled, and stored in the patient fridge?
Probably because nurses don’t want to have to walk to the patient fridge, lol
Can a medically ordered 1800 cal ADA diet be stored in the medication refrigerator?
No, food is never supposed to be stored in the medication refrigerator, even if it's in a can or bottle.
"Medically ordered" is a red herring.
I agree - and that was my stance.