SCHOOL MEDICATION DISPENSING IS CONCERN
This letter is to inform you of a medical situation regarding my 6 year old son that occurred on November 8, 2022 at Shadeville Elementary.
On November 8, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. I arrived to eat lunch with my son at school. My son went to the clinic to receive his prescribed medication and there was a data entry operator in the clinic who did not identify my Son’s full name or date of birth and she was ready to dispense an open bottle of another child’s controlled substance medication that she grabbed from the locked medication drawer to my son. I intervened and asked my son, “What’s wrong?” He said, “I don’t know. I am waiting on this lady to give me my medication.”
The data entry operator asked was I his mom? I said, “Yes.” She said, “I have never done this before and I was asking your son did he take these two controlled substances plus his prescribed medication and he said, ‘I don’t know.’”
I said, “Ma’am, he is 5 years old and he doesn’t know the name of his medicine, plus you have the wrong medication, my son does not take that.”
If I had not been there that day, this could have been BAD and my son maybe not be here today.
I filed a complaint with the school principal and human resources on Nov. 9, and my Husband and I visited the School Board meeting about this on Dec. 12.
I had to ask the school principal if he could please not allow this employee to return to the clinic and could he please place photos on the medication baskets for another form of identification, the principal was very good about making sure these two requests were completed, and to my knowledge he has not allowed this employee to return to the clinic per our request.
Eight months has passed by since we presented the incident to the school board and not one board members has reached out to us about this situation..
The Wakulla school board policy 5.62 is: Each school principal shall designate a staff member(s) to administer prescribed medications. The staff member(s) shall be trained annually by a licensed nurse or licensed physician. Only staff that has been designated by the principal and have received training shall have access to the medication.
The purpose of this letter is to inform the parents of Wakulla County that Wakulla County School board voted on Aug. 21 to continue the Department of Health contract for clinical services. Are you aware that the Wakulla county school board will not obtain a RN or LPN for elementary school or middle school students, but they have an LPN for the high school due to funding? The Wakulla County School Board pays the Department of Health $25,162.75 quarterly which is July-September, October-December, January-March, and April-June, this is a total of $96,651.00 for school health services.
Parents and/or guardians: I am here to tell you, when your child is given the wrong medication because a Wakulla County School Board “trained” employed is dispensing controlled substance medication, instead of a licensed nurse dispensing medication to your child and something BAD happens-- you can thank the Wakulla County School board for the medical error because it’s all about “funding” and apparently the school board fails to defend the children and their parents about this. The Wakulla County School board members can’t afford an RN or LPN to work in the schools, but I bet they can afford a lawsuit when that amount will be larger than the salary of an LPN or RN!
Shool board members I will leave you with these words: When you know better ; you do better!
You can make effort or you can make excuses, but you can’t make both.
Sherra L. Reatherford
Crawfordville