Bringing your own prescription when admitted to hospital

Posted by Bill @waterboy, Nov 8, 2021

Medicare part d and b and hospital "policies"
People... if you are on Medicare and go in the hospital "under observation" take your medications, in the original containers with you. Tell them under ACA rules you have the right to refuse any surgical or medical treatment and you are refusing all medications from their pharmacy UNLESS newly prescribed. You will be taking the medications you brought with you. They will tell you it is against their policy, ask to see a copy of that policy, and that that policy is illegal. Stand by your guns, refuse any medications from their pharmacy, this will force your Dr. to either not take any medications or let you take yours.. which of course is against his hippocratic oath. I was recently at Mayo Rochester for a surgery, told the Surgeon of my wishes, she tried the policy trick, I told her it was an illegal policy, they eventually took my meds put their labels on so they could scan them in when given. They are trying to make their pharmacy an income stream and you do not have to allow it. STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Visiting Mayo Clinic Support Group.

@patient0

I am the spouse and care giver of a man that 1 year ago had a liver transplant because of liver cancer. Care after a liver transplant is planned in a very strict schedule. He is supposed to take his medications at the same times every day, some AM some PM. Over the past year he has had medical issues that have led to him being admitted to a hospital. Upon admission we tell the hospital staff about this required routine for his medications but we may as well be talking to a wall on this subject. I bring with him a recorded list of his medications and dosages prescribed by his liver transplant team and ask that they coordinate with the team on further medications but they behave as though we are invading their territory by trying to keep him on his schedule. They tell us they have two hour window to dispense medications which translates into they bring some of medications at various times as they choose and stop medications without explanation or increase dosages without explanation or discussion. The staff just brings drugs in and hand him the plastic cups to take them and expect that he will blindly just take them. He is on 9 different medications at present which has been trimmed several times over the past year just after the surgery he was on twice that many. He can't keep up and know he has had all that he needs to take in this dispensing whenever manner they use. Why can't we just bring his medications from home and let him take them on schedule and they can handle whatever new medicine he needs?

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Hi patientO, when I have been admitted to hospital I have always been put on the TP floor, they r more on the ball with TP protocol. I am sorry to hear that u r trying to do what you have been instructed to do by your TP team and they seem not to care.
My understanding from my TP team u do have a window of time if you have forgotten or in your case not given your meds at the same time u have been instructed to do. This is not something that is routine of course, but a just in case u have gotten off track for reasons out of your control.
You r a great caregiver to your husband I can tell😊💚
Good luck and hope your husband gets home soon.

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@myfablife

Hi patientO, when I have been admitted to hospital I have always been put on the TP floor, they r more on the ball with TP protocol. I am sorry to hear that u r trying to do what you have been instructed to do by your TP team and they seem not to care.
My understanding from my TP team u do have a window of time if you have forgotten or in your case not given your meds at the same time u have been instructed to do. This is not something that is routine of course, but a just in case u have gotten off track for reasons out of your control.
You r a great caregiver to your husband I can tell😊💚
Good luck and hope your husband gets home soon.

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Not all hospitals have a transplant floor. Perhaps the ICU unit would be a good place to land, then?

There have been a few times when my husband didn't have his meds at the time we have set for morning/evening doses. Now, I keep two doses in my car, he keeps 2 doses in his truck, and we rotate them through every two weeks, into the daily pill boxes. Likewise, we keep my meds in the vehicles "just in case" Usually, we are worried only about the Rx meds, not the over-the-counter unless they are critical ones.
Ginger

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@patient0 -
A year after my transplant, I was admitted to my local hospital with sepsis. The nurse would not give me my morning antirejection medications because I was scheduled for an ERCP and had to fast until after the procedure. My husband asked to see the supervising nurse who then contacted my GI who was going to do the procedure. She (supervisor) returned and reported that I needed those meds, and then she put it on my hospital orders that I get prioritized to get my medications on schedule. So, sometimes you do need to talk to someone on the hospital floor who will have direct access to your husband's care - and make sure it is written in the daily orders/notes. After a few days. I was transferred to another in-state hospital which had a transplant department, and they handled it perfectly!

On a few other occasions I was able to speak for myself. I always make sure that the attending nurse knows that I am a transplant recipient, and why I need my meds per schedule. It is a perfect opportunity to share information about liver transplants, because for some new nurses, we are the first transplant patients they have ever had contact with.

Unfortunately this can be an ongoing challenge for patients like us.

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@patient0

I am the spouse and care giver of a man that 1 year ago had a liver transplant because of liver cancer. Care after a liver transplant is planned in a very strict schedule. He is supposed to take his medications at the same times every day, some AM some PM. Over the past year he has had medical issues that have led to him being admitted to a hospital. Upon admission we tell the hospital staff about this required routine for his medications but we may as well be talking to a wall on this subject. I bring with him a recorded list of his medications and dosages prescribed by his liver transplant team and ask that they coordinate with the team on further medications but they behave as though we are invading their territory by trying to keep him on his schedule. They tell us they have two hour window to dispense medications which translates into they bring some of medications at various times as they choose and stop medications without explanation or increase dosages without explanation or discussion. The staff just brings drugs in and hand him the plastic cups to take them and expect that he will blindly just take them. He is on 9 different medications at present which has been trimmed several times over the past year just after the surgery he was on twice that many. He can't keep up and know he has had all that he needs to take in this dispensing whenever manner they use. Why can't we just bring his medications from home and let him take them on schedule and they can handle whatever new medicine he needs?

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Hi @patient0 Sounds like your a concerned care giver like my wife was and I love Her for it. I am now celebrating 5 years with my new transplanted Heart and I'm well versed on the importance of Meds on time. Mine can be even trickier since I also take a med at 6 AM that has to be at least 1 hour before my anti-rejection meds. So even in the Hospital that I had my transplant in, I had to set up a routine to help us remember to take our meds every morning at 8 AM and again at 8 PM but to get us in the habit we had to call the nurse just prior to the hour of our meds to let them know its time. So during that time I developed a habit of calling about 15 min prior to the 8 AM or 8 PM time to request the meds. Even during a period about 2 years after transplant I was hospitalized for a different reason, I still did it and they appreciated that I kept up the habit.
Now I will tell you that I was always told it's not like we have to take them exactly on the Hour as depending on other factors it may be delayed, Like for surgery running a bit longer or other things out of our control like driving for instance, So I was told that plus or minus 1 hour was acceptable time frame. So Yes I would still call just prior to 8 but if it was like 8:30 it wasn't a big deal. A great example of this is even now when I get my labs drawn which have to be in the morning prior to taken Tacrolimus sometimes the Lab is running a bit late and it may be a bit after 8 AM. Or if I know ill be driving on a highway like heading to an appointment I may take them a bit early keeping within that hour. Now I was told this was OK and maybe discuss this with His transplant Doctor to see what They say. But also everyone else is correct that we should keep to a routine and not break it too often. I too have even run into some nurses who are tied up with an emergency or an unexpected delay due to another patient so I try to understand if it within the plus or minus an hour.
Great Job as I can tell you are on top of this and as a Transplant patient myself, I could not have done it without my Wife who was my care giver. Now with Life back to normal for me, if needed am ready to help Her as I like to remember there is no "I" in team.

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I have a medication that has to be compounded and as a result I have to bring it when I am admitted to hospital. Burt when I leave I rarely get my medicine back and often they lose it before it can even be administered. I have resorted to withholding it and keep a small number of capsules in my purse and give it to myself...which I get lot of hassle over it...It is an expensive medication and I am tired having to go back to the hospital to retrieve it they find it. How I can Get this to stop?

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