Care Options Rx Manages Medications Securely with eMAR

Care Options Rx is a long-term care pharmacy provider that currently supports 14 senior living communities with Aline eMAR (formerly ACCUflo). The controlled substance management feature of the eMAR platform was instrumental in identifying a situation where narcotics were being diverted at one of Care Options Rx’s affiliate communities. Here are some of the capabilities of that feature that made it so effective.

Controlled Substance Documentation

Aline eMAR documents every controlled substance that is charted and records which resident received the medication, the time given, and the caregiver who entered the information. This reporting enables communities to track trends that could point to a potential diversion issue. For the community in which Care Options Rx identified a potential situation, Aline eMAR flagged a discrepancy in the counts of multiple stocks of narcotics at the time of shift change.

Inventory Checks

The eMAR platform requires care that staff carries out a “blind count,” which is a manual count of controlled substances on hand, at the end of their shift. They then input that number into the system. Meanwhile, Aline eMAR also keeps a tally of the inventory that should be on hand and flags any discrepancies. In this case, the system flagged missing narcotics that pointed to a diversion issue.

Mitigating Diversions

Realizing that there were multiple undocumented and missing narcotics in its inventory, the community used Aline eMAR’s substance management reports to view administrations, reconciliations of counts, and any potential removal of narcotics. The reporting was so detailed with data, including time stamps, dates, and transactions, that the community was able to pinpoint within the hour that the narcotics were diverted and identify the staff member who was responsible.

Safety and Security

Aline eMAR not only eliminates all the inefficiencies and risks associated with paper charting, but it also provides extra security for clinicians and safety for residents, ensuring that diversion issues are kept to a minimum.

Aline eMAR Controlled Substance Management reports include:

• A detailed history of which witnesses performed the end-of-shift controlled substance inventory audit and when that audit occurred.
• A detailed history of every controlled substance administered, the residents they were administered to, the time they were administered, and the caregiver who charted them.
• Any controlled substance “wasted” or “removed” from the inventory, by which caregiver, and for what reason.