| I. PURPOSE
| | This policy establishes procedures for Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (DMH) directly operated clinics to dispose of expired medications and devices.
| II. DEFINITIONS
| Authorized Personnel: Psychiatrist, PA, NP, Pharm.D., pharmacy technician, RN, LVN and psychiatric technician
| | III. POLICY
| Medications shall not be kept in stock after the expiration date and all procedures shall be followed as written.
Any expired, contaminated, and/or deteriorated medications shall be disposed of onsite in the proper waste bin or quarantined and returned to DMH Pharmacy Services in accordance with DMH Medication Storage Policy 352.14.
Sharps (e.g., used syringes and needles) shall be disposed of in an onsite sharps container provided through a contracted vendor.
Field services shall return full sharps containers in any DMH medication room serviced by DMH contracted sharps disposal vendor.
Field-based teams may dispose of client's mediations that are in the program's possession if they are unable to locate the client for more than 30 days by utilizing the same process for any expired, contaminated, and/or deteriorated medications. Any
expired, contaminated, and/or deteriorated medications shall be disposed of or quarantined in accordance with this policy or
returned to DMH Pharmacy Services in accordance with DMH Medication Storage Policy 352.14.
| | IV. PROCEDURES
| Procedures - Expired Medication and Device Disposal
| | V. AUTHORITIES
| | | VI. ATTACHMENTS
| No attachments are associated with this policy.
| |
|
