Medication Takeback Box now available at Geisinger Jersey Shore Hospital
Located inside the main lobby at Geisinger Jersey Shore Hospital, the medication takeback box is easy to access and available Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. for anyone needing to discard expired or unused medications. The boxes can accept prescription and over-the-counter solid medications, tablets and capsules, liquid medications in the original containers, prescription patches, medical creams and ointments, vitamins, nasal sprays and even pet medications. The boxes are secure, allowing narcotics and controlled substances to be accepted. If possible, leave prescriptions in their original bottles.
“Cold and flu season is here, and you might be taking some medicine,” said Jenny Plummer, a Geisinger pharmacist and director of Geisinger’s retail and mail-order pharmacy. “Now is a great time to look inside your medicine cabinets and around the house for any old or expired medications”
Letting medications accumulate at home can cause problems, including opening the doorway for those medications to fall into the wrong hands, Plummer said. She recommends frequently sweeping your home for unused medications and looking closely at expiration labels.
“As you check your medications, make sure they’re not expired or labeled incorrectly, and most importantly, keep them out of reach of young kids,” Plummer said. “Leaving unused prescriptions or expired over-the-counter medications in the home poses a great risk. If you have a question about a prescription or medication, you can always ask your pharmacist about whether a medication is safe to keep or properly dispose of it.”
With the addition of the medication takeback box at Geisinger Jersey Shore Hospital, there are now nine Geisinger medication takeback boxes in Lycoming County. The eight other boxes are located at Townville Pharmacy at Ben Franklin in Montoursville; in Montgomery at Montgomery Pharmacy and TJ’s Market; and Weis Market locations in Williamsport, Muncy, Montoursville and Jersey Shore.
Not everything can be accepted in the takeback boxes, however. Items not accepted include intravenous solutions, injectables, syringes, needles, hydrogen peroxide, compressed cylinders or aerosols (like asthma inhalers), iodine-containing medications, thermometers or alcohol.
Geisinger’s medication takeback team is a coalition of dedicated health care professionals working to elevate the importance of reducing the impacts of unused, unwanted and expired medications on public health, including drug addiction and environmental impacts. The team works year-round to encourage to the utilization of medication takeback boxes as the safest and most efficient way to securely dispose of medications.
For a list of Geisinger medication takeback box locations, head to www.geisinger.org/takeback.
About Geisinger
Geisinger is among the nation’s leading providers of value-based care, serving 1.2 million people in urban and rural communities across Pennsylvania. Founded in 1915 by philanthropist Abigail Geisinger, the non-profit system generates $10 billion in annual revenues across 134 care sites - including 10 hospital campuses, and Geisinger Health Plan, with 600,000 members in commercial and government plans. The Geisinger College of Health Sciences educates more than 5,000 medical professionals annually and conducts more than 1,400 clinical research studies. With 26,000 employees, including 1,600 employed physicians, Geisinger is among Pennsylvania’s largest employers with an estimated economic impact of $14 billion to the state’s economy. On March 31, 2024, Geisinger became the first member of Risant Health, a new nonprofit charitable organization created to expand and accelerate value-based care across the country. Learn more at geisinger.org or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X.
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