For families · Keeping medicines safe
Medication safety at home.
Hospice medications work. They also need to be respected. A small dose of morphine can ease pain or labored breathing in a fragile patient — and the same dose, taken by someone else, can be dangerous. Here is how to keep everyone safe.
·Storage
- Lock it up if children, grandchildren, contractors, or visitors come through. A lockbox in the bedroom is the easiest answer; many pharmacies sell small ones.
- Refrigerate the comfort pack as labeled. Do not move medicines from their original bottles.
- Keep on one shelf — not scattered through the house. One central spot makes administration safer and reduces missed doses.
- Out of reach of pets. Many of these are toxic, even in small amounts.
·Giving a dose
- Wash hands. Wear gloves if you can.
- Read the label twice — name, strength, dose, route. Use the syringe that came with the bottle, not a kitchen spoon.
- Write it down. Time, medicine, dose, what you saw afterward. The medication log lives near the kit.
- Wait for the right interval before repeating. The nurse will mark the minimum on each bottle.
- If unsure, call before giving. Better one extra phone call than one wrong dose.
·Disposal
- Controlled medications — morphine, lorazepam, haloperidol, methadone, fentanyl — are destroyed by the hospice nurse in your presence at the end of care, per DEA regulation. You will sign a witness form.
- Other medications can be brought to a DEA take-back location (most pharmacies). The team will tell you the closest one.
- Do not flush medications, do not pour them down the drain, and do not give them to anyone else — even another family member with a prescription. Diversion is a felony.