Medication cleanout in searcy, Arkansas: Preventing poisoning, misuse, and abuse while protecting the environment

Medication cleanout events benefit the community by providing opportunities for consumers to drop off expired and/or unused medications for appropriate disposal. In Searcy, AR, law enforcement has conducted drop off events to keep medications out of the local landfill and the hands of the public. However, collection and disposal of medications alone is insufficient to identify and address the underlying causes for the overabundance of unused medications. The collection of data regarding unused medications is a first step in this process. Therefore, Harding University College of Pharmacy (HUCOP) joined local law enforcement efforts and implemented the Medication Cleanout program and Pharmaceutical Collection Monitoring System™ (PCMS) used by Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Pharmacy. PCMS is a dynamic, web-based data entry tool which serves as a central repository for data regarding unused medications. On October 12, 2012, HUCOP hosted a Medication Cleanout event to properly dispose of medications and more importantly, to gather data on the origins of items collected. Forty participants dropped off more than 65 pounds of medications. This translated into 679 line items and 29,037 dosage units. With biannual events planned, this program not only benefits our community, but also protects the environment. The Medication Cleanout goals are to prevent poisonings, prevent abuse and misuse, and protect the environment. Medication mishaps can occur when children gain access to medications in the home, when medications are saved for later use, or when people flush unused medications. The Medication Cleanout program gathers data before providing proper disposal. Through our data collection efforts, we hope to meet our program goals as well as educate the community on proper disposal of medications and address the underlying problem of surplus medication.