The Bolus | drip.vet's blog

Best Practices for Administration of Veterinary Controlled Substances

Written by Lance Roasa, JD, DVM, MS | Feb 12, 2021 4:16:43 PM

What are the best practices for administering controlled substances to hospitalized veterinary patients?

Here are five key steps you can take:

  1. Step 1: Keep drugs locked during working hours

  2. Step 2: Don't leave "loaded" syringes out in the open

  3. Step 3: Observe injections drawn up and given when possible

  4. Step 4: Install and use security cameras

  5. Step 5: Watch the sharps container

This is the third in a four-part series examining best practices for handling controlled substances in a veterinary hospital. The posts are derived from information in drip.vet's Opioid 411 Anytime course.

Administering Controlled Substances In-hospital

In this post, we talk about administering drugs to patients while they are in the practice, possibly for pre-anesthetic or treatment use. Keep those drug cabinets locked during the day, do not leave syringes or bottles laying around.

When you can, spot-check nurses giving controlled-substance injections. They can use that time to divert by not actually giving the drug and pocketing it later.

This is probably the biggest tip: Install and use security cameras over the drug lock box and the treatment areas. They are cheap, easy to maintain and definitely slow diversion.

Watch the sharps containers if waste controlled substances are going in there. Another common tactic is for an abuser to go into your waste containers and fish out the syringes.

Storage of Controlled Substances

Use two safes, one for back stock and one for daily use. A large volume of controlled substances does not need to be on the practice floor for everyone’s access.

Store the logs and the drugs in separate locked cabinets so that if someone wanted to steal drugs and then falsely account for them in a patient record they would have to get the keys for both. 

An electronic lock box is ideal because it limits the number of people who have access and the lock codes may be changed occasionally. Don’t hide lock box keys in the same place for 20 years. Everyone in the practice eventually learns where they are hidden.

If you have a smaller safe, it should be bolted to the wall or the floor. Put those security cameras over the drug storage area and get those expired drugs out of the lock box as soon as possible.

COMING UP IN PART 4: Inventory/Record-keeping

Related posts:

Safe Dispensing of Controlled Substances

Veterinary Team Best Practices for Handling Opioids

drip.vet's Opioid 411 in mandated states

drip.vet's Opioid 411 courses are RACE-approved continuing education covering opioid prescribing by veterinarians in precise detail. This course provides students with a broad range of expert level knowledge on subjects including: The Opioid Crisis in America, DEA Laws and Regulations, Identifying and Stopping Misuse, Opioids in Practice and Best Practices. For more information, click the image below:
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