Nurses in long-term care facilities risk medication errors and double dosing due to overlapping narcotic orders and a manual, paper-based narcotic tracking system that is not integrated with the electronic medication administration record.

Workarounds Described

• Documents in eMAR and also in a separate paper narcotic book
• Relies on manual counting of narcotics by hand
• When narcotic is nearly empty, a new order is created leading to overlapping orders
• Nurse checks eMAR but not the narcotic book before administering

Implied Software Gaps

• eMAR system that prevents administration when multiple orders exist for the same drug and time interval
• Integrated narcotic tracking that automatically reconciles eMAR documentation with physical count
• Alert system that warns nurse of overlapping orders before administration

NarcGuard

A real-time medication safety platform that integrates with eMAR and barcode scanning to prevent double dosing of narcotics. It consolidates all active orders for the same drug, provides alerts for administration intervals, and automates narcotic count reconciliation, eliminating manual paper logs.

Existing Solutions Mentioned