The ER I work in has 4 areas. The area I was assigned to the other day is pretty detached from the main ER. This particular part of the ER has 10 urgent care beds for the not so sick folks and then another 12 beds for level 3 and 2 patients. The 12 bed area gets its fair share of stroke and septic patients. Unfortunately it is a logistical nightmare. Not only is it minimally stocked with meds, the new flavor of the month is not to have insulin stocked in a medication refrigerator because there were issues with vials not being properly labeled with "use by" dates. Needless to say trekking through the ER to the main ER's med room is time consuming. Upon getting to the med room and finding no insulin one might find themselves extremely annoyed… not because they walked all the way to the main ER, but because it was a complete waste of time when they are otherwise running around cleaning up the mess from the prior shift.
Having had this issue of no insulin in the ER in the past I called the pharmacy and offered to pick up a bottle of each type of insulin in order to restock the ER! During my conversation with the pharmacy tech I asked why when they restocked the refrigerator they didn't check to see if we had insulin. The tech informed me that it wasn't something they did. Knowing that they stock the refrigerator with other refrigerated meds it just seemed like a simple request…. but I wasn't getting anywhere. The only explanation I was given was that someone must have been stealing the meds.
After hanging up the phone on of my managers said that I was "mean" for calling them as telling them that it was unacceptable that the ER didn't have insulin. Well I do find it completely unacceptable to not have insulin stocked in an ER. I then pointed out to the manager and the charge nurse that this was a chronic issue, which it has been, and that we needed a solution. She quickly stated that pharmacy wouldn't perform a check and restock twice a day. I then suggested that the charge nurse at the beginning of the shift check the refrigerator to ensure that insulin was stocked as well as checking our stock levels for vital things like liter bags of normal saline. I was then told by the charge nurse that I "complain too much".
Maybe I do complain. But I think that I am right to complain and offer a few suggestions on how to fix this problem we have.
Its interesting how identifying a problem and offering a solution is met with such resistance.
I have decided to turn a new leaf. I'm not one of my apathetic coworkers, I refuse to give into that mentality. If there is an issue I will absolutely point it out but I will now offer no less than three solutions.
