What do you do with all those expired medicine bottles cluttering up your bathroom cabinet? It used to be you’d just flush the pills down the toilet, but that’s been proven an environmental no-no. The outpatient pharmacy at The University of Kansas Hospital offers a safe and secure way of disposing of unwanted, unused or expired medications any time of the year.   

 A blue MedSafe medication disposal box was installed in the hospital’s outpatient pharmacy and at the pharmacy at the KU Cancer Center at the Westwood campus last November…collecting more than 350 pounds of unused medications so far. The receptacle’s one-way drop door is open to accept medications during the pharmacy’s normal hours of operation, which are expanding beginning July 5. The new hours are Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-9 p.m. and weekends, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.     

A collection receptacle, such as the MedSafe, is the Drug Enforcement Administration-preferred method for unused medication collection. Depositing unused medications in the MedSafe decreases the potential for drugs falling into the wrong hands and accidental household poisonings.   

In the video, Brandon Walker, operations manager of The University of Kansas Hospital’s outpatient pharmacy, explains how the system works, the environmental benefits, how patient information is protected, the types of medications accepted and items that are not accepted. Also included is video of the MedSafe containers.