First-aid Cabinet & Available Meds

Karen S

Currently, we offer our employees access to a first-aid/medicine cabinet located in our break areas which contain items such as aspirin, cough drops, nasal decongestants, etc., but have a concern about the liability associated with the distribution of the meds. (We do acknowledge that it is the choice of the employee to consume but we still feel uncomfortable.)

Question: Have other companies addressed this issue and if so, what were the thoughts associated with any decision making? I know that schools do not disperse but am not aware of any standards associated with private employers.

Any help or insight would be appreciated.

Thanks!

ritaanz

We have first aid cabinets in all of the Unit Managers offices. They are stocked for us by a company that specializes in this.

Once a month the rep comes in and inventories the cabinets and then discusses with me the items he feels need to be replaced, added or renewed.

We have been doing this for over 5 years and have not had any problems.

deniseE

I think we had a discussion on this recently (see if a search will bring up the old thread)...some employers had great success while others still had concerns.

We have first aid kits in each department...but it has only band-aids and that sort of thing, no medication of any kind.

We have also trained (Red Cross) a number of employees to act as "first responders" in the event of a medical emergency. They will assist until the EMS arrives.

Karen S

Thanks for your response Denise.

I am brand new to the forum and I appreciate your feedback. I'll take a look to see if I can locate the previous discussions.

Thanks again.

Tony Kessler

Karen S,
DeniseE is correct. There was a related thread about this topic in May. To find it, go to the Search icon at the top of the page, and do a search for "Pills." (Be sure not to click on the "Search the Archives too" button -- that would take longer. The Pills thread is so recent that you don't need to go back into the Forum archives.) Hope this helps. tk

Karen S

Thanks so much for taking the time to locate that information for me.

Today has been my first day using the forum and I LOVE IT! It's extremely user friendly and I am grateful that I have this resource to communicate with so many others. So many people willing to share....it's great.

Thanks again,

rad

We had them in my old office, we were a union shop. We never had a problem and it was nice to have. Now we are all managers and we do not have one but I wish we did, a co-worker hit his head and I had to give him a popsicle because we had no ice pack.

Karen S

Thanks for the thoughtful and I might add, funny response. I enjoyed it. I hope the employee recovered okay.

rad

My company used to have staff nurses on site and if an employee didn't feel well they were sent downstairs and got a "greenie" which, I've heard, is some kind of narcotic! They'd be sent back to work to finish off their shift. This is company lore and the practice stopped long before I came along.

My co-worker recovered just fine and even funnier was me waiting for him outside the men's room with the popsicle in hand. I got a few funny looks.

Karen S

Well Rad,

Once again you've made my day. Your popsicle story in the morning and the greenie in the afternoon...you are two for two!

Your story was so humorous that our President asked me why I was laughing so hard...so I had to share your story with her. She enjoyed it as much as I did, but as funny as your story is, it perfectly demonstrates how important as employers to be careful. By being proactive and prepared in the event of an emergency or a headache...it could come back to bite us.

Enjoyed it! Thanks again for your feedback.

ray a

We stopped dispensing any kind of meds years ago upon recommendation from our insurance company - a liability issue. We stock the usual first aid stuff - bandaids, etc. First Aid cabinets are located strategically throughout the facility.

marc

If the liability issues are your concern, one of the posters of the previous thread about this had vending machines placed at work that had single dosages of various OTC medications, such as aspirins and allergy medicines. The EE's were then buying individually wrapped and labeled products. Their choice whether to use the products or not and the wrapping and labeling insure the products are what they say they are.

We don't use this method, but it seems a good solution.

AJ SPHR

We have three first aid cabinets stocked with individually packaged:
ibuprofin
tylenol
cold medicine
sinus medicines
burn creams
hydrocortisone creams
band aids
burn sprays
ice packs

Employees love them and we have had no issues about liability. We have a TPA who administers it and comes in monthly (as others have said) to review and stock it. Since they're individually packaged (2-pills/pack), there is no safety/sanitary concerns.

cthr

I coordinate our emergency medical team. We too used to have aspirin, etc available, but were advised that we should discontinue this practice. Some states have laws regarding prescribing with out a license and even though they are OTC meds, they still fall under this law. We do make non-ingestible first aid items available: ice packs, etc.

We have even removed all first aid products that contain latex to cover ourselves against allergic reactions.

lnelson

We have several areas with medicine cabinets but we DO NOT stock them with cold medicine.

The cabinets contain aspirin/ibuprofin along with first aid bandages, eye wash, burn creams, ice packs, etc.

The only reason no cold medicine is because most of our ees work on machinery and it could make them drowsy or dizzy.

JMO,
Lisa

lorrie

We keep a first-aid kit in our front office, and also in the warehouse. The kit contains bandaids & first aid cream type items, as well as ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and aspirin.

I have always just gone to the local department store to purchase bulk bottles of this stuff and recently had a request to add aspirin to it for an employee who has had some heart problems.

I can certainly understand all of the liability issues, but for us I think the benefits are too great to quit. I like the idea of having the individually wrapped items. I will have to check into the cost of those.

njjel

Years ago when I was in another life we had a safety cabinet but no oral meds were in it. Just bandages, bandaids and the like. Our liability carrier recommended we not have any oral meds so we followed their recommendation.

dynamite9551

what you make available to your employees is nothing more than a convenience of over-the-counter first aids. you are not "distributing" them, merely making them available. about the only thing i would worry about is how often you replenish your stock, e.g, are they stocking their own medicine cabinets at the enxpense of the employer. we place aspirin/ibuprofen/tylenol and bandaids in unlcoked cabinets. cough drops, nasal sprays/ antihistamines/ gauze bandages, scissors, etc. in a locked cabinet for which they must retrieve the key from the safety manager. if there is no safety manager then the plan mgr. or HR.