How big is your medicine cabinet?

[SuckySurgeon7]

Just wondering how many, if any, medications you all keep on hand at your clinics?

One doc I shadowed keeps a closet's worth of samples from drug reps that he can give out to patients that can't afford their meds. Do you all get to choose what kind and how many, etc? If I were a rural doc, I'd probably need a lot of stuff at the office, but that's a pretty big target for thieves. What do y'all keep on hand, and do you have any security concerns?

Thanks

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[styphon]

Specific drug reps carry specific samples. They will not carry samples of brands that now have generic equivalents, pretty much always the samples will be the higher cost brand name meds. They will also not give you samples of controlled substances - and these are what thieves are after.

Example: no one will give you a sample of Coumadin, but they would for Xarelto.

My IHS clinic keeps no samples as we have a limited formulary and having the newest/most expensive drug samples does not make sense.

The urgent cares I work at keep no samples: Drug reps have tried, but we throw them away.

My residency clinic - in the inner part of a major city - kept samples of inhalers, BP meds, and cholesterol meds. It is nice when there is no cheaper alternative (Advair, symbicort) or when it is a PRN med (Cialis)

 

[Roguelyn]

I don't allow medication samples in my offices. The vast majority of my patients are uninsured or on Medicaid. There's just no good reason to get them started on a branded medication when there are acceptable alternatives they'll be able to afford. I do have a few samples of OTC things like RePhresh and NeilMed nasal sinus rinses.

I keep the following medications in a locked cabinet: aspirin, Benadryl, Norflex, Depo-Medrol, Tylenol, Depo-Provera, bicillin, xylocaine, Clonidine, an antiemetic (this depends on what's cheapest at the time), ketoralac, silvadene, Duo-Neb, albuterol, Rocephin, Mirena. There's probably a few others but that's what I recall offhand.

I worry about security, but not so much for these medications but for the safety of patients and staff.