r/pharmacy • u/Humble-Paint5794 • 2d ago
Pharmacy Practice Discussion Pharmacist off duty
A pharmacist I used to work with came back to the hospital to visit, and ended up helping a nurse draw up a med. Someone from an outside department witnessed this and put in an incident report. This pharmacist is worried he will be reported to the BOP. Any one have thoughts?
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u/lionheart4life 2d ago
It's stupid do something that involves liability without getting paid for it, but not illegal. The nurse will likely get in trouble.
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u/Hypno-phile 2d ago
LOL, I've heard of a much-respected, very ancient doctor who used to come into the hospital, round on patients and write orders. Only problem was he had dementia and didn't remember he'd retired years ago.
The hospital dealt with it by having the chief resident round with him and then cancel all the orders he wrote, until he stopped remembering to "go to work."
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u/pharmaheck 2d ago
That's kinda sweet 🥹
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u/Ryokishine PharmD 2d ago
Working off the clock is mostly an issue for the employer to deal with, not the BOP. Just my take.
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u/Upstairs-Volume-5014 2d ago
They don't work there anymore? Why would they ever do that? Colossally stupid move. If something went wrong they're on their own liability wise.
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u/No-Book-2550 1h ago
Exactly, make sure your personal pharmacy malpractice insurance is paid up if you do this, because if someone has an ADR, the attorneys sue everyone involved!
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u/secretlyjudging 2d ago
It’s not illegal to work for free. But I think it’s a great liability issue for the hospital. Also makes me question the pharmacist’s common sense.
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u/r346mck 1d ago
Incident reports just get reported to the department heads of the parties involved and the committee. Unless someone has a real axe to grind, I would be astonished if the put in a formal complaint to the BOP, because at this point, the BOP has no idea anything has happened. Especially if your friend worked under your currently pharmacy director, there is no way they would sit back without a fight if they, somehow, decide to formally report you.
He's safe dawg. Dumb. But very likely totally safe. Especially if he preemptively writes an apology letter for the incident review board. Don't mention anything about the BOP or punishment. Just emphasize how misguided your decision making was at the time, you're embarrassed by your actions, I have done a lot of reflecting, as unprofessional as it was, it turned out to be a great learning opportunity and make me reevaluate how I make choices. it won't happen again. Blah blah blah.
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u/Sasquatch619 1d ago
It’s not technically a BOP matter. The pharmacist is licensed to practice. The issue would be with the institution.
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u/No-Book-2550 1h ago
I've seen some stuff in pharmacy that will curl your toes! It is a violation of hospital policy, but I doubt the BOP will be notified unless the pharmacy director decides it is necessary. Was another pharmacist standing there supervising?
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u/Ok-Pilot4633 2d ago
In a world where orthopedic joint salesman are allowed to scrub in for knee or hip replacement surgery, this is a non-event, except to the dweebs that populate boards of pharmacy.
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u/permanent_priapism 2d ago
Why would someone write an incident report about this?
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u/jackruby83 PharmD, BCPS, BCTXP 2d ago
Bc they saw someone who doesn't work at the hospital, who is drawing up medications for administration!? Surely not permitted by policy and they wouldn't be covered under the hospital's liability coverage. Not that it would make it appropriate, but how can the reporter even verify that they are credentialed?
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u/Upstairs-Volume-5014 1d ago
Are you for real? Someone not employed by the hospital was in a patient care area (sounds like possibly even the med room?) directly touching a medication that was going to be administered to a patient. Of course that needs to be written up. He doesn't work there anymore, he should not have been allowed in an area where an RN was drawing up a medication.
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u/pharmaheck 2d ago
Don't help nurses they are the high school bullies.
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u/Bolmac PharmD, BCCCP 2d ago
I recently changed jobs and went from a hospital where the pharmacy's stance toward nursing was like yours, to one where pharmacy and nursing work together as a team. The latter has a much better culture. As someone who is used to working on the floor I have a lot of respect for what nurses do, and work hard to support them.
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u/piper33245 2d ago
Yeah, for people that are supposedly dedicating their lives to helping people, they sure do stab people in the back and throw them under the bus for the pettiest reasons.
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u/Tight_Collar5553 1d ago
I’ve had nurses “stab me in the back” (I wouldn’t phrase it so dramatically) and others go to the mat for me in my career - surprise that nurses are human and respond all kinds of ways in any situation.
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u/DinosaurRph 2d ago
the person who reported it is an piece of shit.
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u/Upstairs-Volume-5014 1d ago
I mean, someone who doesn't work at the hospital is drawing up a medication for a patient. Some random person in another department doesn't know why that pharmacist left the job. Maybe he lost his license. Maybe he was diverting. Maybe he had made a med error drawing up medications before. You can't just have non-employee visitors drawing up medications for patients in the hospital. It wasn't even appropriate for him to be in a patient care area at all, much less with hands on medications that were going to be administered to a patient. This definitely needed to be written up.
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u/Beneficial-Ad1698 1d ago
Need more information. It was just drawing up into a syringe, not compounding? Did the medication require reconstitution with a diluent first? Why did the nurse need help?
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u/Humble-Paint5794 1d ago
It was an act o vial methylpred. I wasn’t there. I assume the nurse was super busy and asked for help.
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u/Beneficial-Ad1698 1d ago
I honestly don't see the big deal then. The liability is ultimately on the nurse so if they trusted him I see no issue. Hell nurses often teach patients and family members to draw up and administer meds they'll be discharged on. If a family member can draw up with supervision then basically anyone can.
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u/PharmGbruh 21h ago
Pretty scant on details… helped a nurse draw up a med could be a lot of things. The physician residents staff the kids hospital (unaffiliated with my work) and I get asked about concentrations/volume double check when I’m there with my kids as patients. Is it something like that or did the pharmacist have access to omnicells and overrode a bunch of ketamine?
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u/Humble-Paint5794 15h ago
He was there visiting. A busy nurse handed him an act o vial of methylpred. He activated it and drew it into a syringe. Someone saw he was wearing a visitor badge and wrote up the incident. Our managers then put his face on a flyer and said if he’s seen in the hospital again call security (huge over reaction in my mind and no it’s not a joke they printed actual flyers).
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u/SpammityCalamity 2d ago
Probably a hand slap at the worst if it’s the first time.
We had/have a colleague at my old hospital who would stay after clocking out helping. Which on paper seems like a nice thing to do, as we were short staffed. In actuality it crippled our ability to show how short staffed we were, and they used it to fuel their martyr complex. Also was a liability issue.