Pill packaging deprives Alaska vets of benefits
The Associated Press
ANCHORAGE – Some Alaska military veterans may be missing out on their free or low-cost prescription drug benefits because of a dispute over the way pills are packaged.
The problem affects veterans living in the state-run Alaska Pioneer Homes who need help from staff to take their medications.
Instead of bottles, Pioneer Homes wants the medicine to come in blister packs — foil on one side, plastic on the other — with the name of the pill and patient on the package.
But the Veterans Administration says it’s not set up to make blister packs.
Pioneer Homes cited safety concerns when it asked for the blister packs, saying bottles required nurses to transfer pills to pill boxes for residents who needed assistance. But that could lead to confusion over which pills to take.
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November 4th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Sounds like the Nurses maybe need to slow down a bit and make sure the right medicine gets to the right patient. However, now they have the convenience of blister packs, so now they feel they no longer need to take the time to dispense medicine “the old fashioned way”. What a CROCK! Just because the nurses can’t do their jobs the way they are supposed to, they’ll make it so the vets can’t get their medicines. Sounds like the Pioneer Home needs to hire nurses that aren’t afraid to take that exra couple of minutes to give our vets their medicines. Good thing these vets didn’t take that attitude when they were serving our country.
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