Make Drug Diversion Virtually Impossible

A health care provider removes 10 hydromorphone syringes from a controlled substance vault for delivery to an Automated Dispensing Machine (ADM) on a nursing unit. The employee diverts five syringes, not knowing the transaction will be flagged as a discrepancy if the exact quantity of syringes is not received at the specified ADM within a predetermined time interval. Could a member of your staff do the same? 

It’s a textbook drug diversion tactic — a health care professional unlawfully taking a patient’s medication for personal use — and it’s just one of hundreds of similar scenarios that play out in health care facilities across the country. 

This dangerous behavior puts patient safety at risk, it damages the facility’s reputation and it is costly for pharmacies to replace lost medication. But there are ways to better manage your controlled substance inventory and win the war against drug abuse in the health care setting. 

With the Lock and Locate® system in place, users prevent the opportunity for diversion at the point of origination and diminish diversion attempts when an expensive drug is delivered.  

Lock and Locate consists of a lockable delivery box and a secure base. Authorized users lock the drug in a secure delivery box in the pharmacy, then lock it into the secure base located on the unit. The delivery box easily slides into the base and locks in place. The box can only be removed by pharmacy-authorized personnel with a key or the combination to the lock. 

If the drug is reported missing, a red flag goes up and personnel know to immediately check with the person who is authorized to have the key or combination to the box. Recognition of the missing drug is immediate. 

For an added level of security, HCL can specially manufacture delivery boxes to lock into one specific base. Locking a specific box to a specific base ensures the box is locked and located in the correct location. Drug diversion is virtually impossible.