The Brucelea Haven Long Term Care Home in Walkerton is making some changes to their medication storage policy.
Following an inspection from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, the home was issued a notice of non-compliance for not properly storing their meds.
Brucelea Haven Administrator Eleanor MacEwen explains there are two classes of medications…a narcotic level and a controlled substance level.
Narcotics are the more powerful of the two, and include things like morphine…while an example of controlled substance would be a sleeping pill.
MacEwen notes the rules laid out in the new Long Term Care Act stipulate controlled substances must be stored under lock and key, just like narcotics.
She notes this means a huge change in process for staff at the home, as these medications will now have to be counted at the beginning of each shift.
MacEwen says that it’s her understanding that other nursing homes in the province previously stored their meds the same way, but BruceLea Haven just happened to get inspected.
She adds since the inspection, they have been in good contact with the Ministry about the policy change.
