Medications
We work hard to keep your daughter healthy while she is enjoying camp, and we also want to help campers receive the medications they need while they are with us. Our medication system will allow us to provide your daughter with the very best care while she is here.
Campers are not allowed to keep ANY medication in their cabins. This includes over-the-counter medications, vitamins, and supplements. The only exceptions to this would include emergency medications such as inhalers for asthma, Epi-pens for severe allergies, and some prescription dermatological creams.
Medications taken daily are dispensed by our nurses at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime. If your daughter requires medication at another time in the day, please contact us before camp to discuss her needs.
Dispensing Medications at Camp
In order to comply with strict health regulations and take the best possible care of our campers, our nurses are not allowed to administer ANY daily medication that has not been prescribed by a medical professional and filled by a pharmacist into our camp-specific blister packs. This includes over-the-counter (OTC) medicine such as Zyrtec or Miralax as well as vitamins and supplements. If these are necessary for your camper to take daily or on a regular basis, they must be prescribed by your physician and filled by our local pharmacy.
ALL medications (including OTC medications) that are to be given daily or on a regular basis need to be processed and filled by our local pharmacy, Whitley Drugs (828-692-4236). Whitley’s will pre-package your daughter’s medicines and deliver these to camp prior to Opening Day. If there are any questions about this process, please call Whitley’s, and they will be happy to help. Our camp nurses will verify the medicines (comparing them to the information you entered on your Health History Form) and have them ready for Opening Day. We will call you with any questions or discrepancies.
Please follow these steps for medications that are to be given on a daily or regular basis:
- Enter the medications, dosages, and details in the medication section of the online Health History Form. Please make sure the information entered is accurate and matches your physician’s instructions.
- Download and complete the Pharmacy Form which is found with your camper’s forms. More detailed instructions for you and for your physician can be found with the form online.
- Send the Pharmacy Form directly to Whitley Drugs. It can be scanned and returned via email (preferred method) as well as mailed or faxed (details on how to do each of these options can be found on the form).
Whitley’s needs to receive the Pharmacy Form and prescriptions from your provider at least 30 days before your daughter’s session in order to properly process and package all the medications and deliver them to camp before Opening Day. If you need to fill a prescription before your daughter’s next refill is available, they can usually work with your insurance company to obtain a “vacation override.”
Whitley’s will process your insurance for the cost of the medication. They will charge a fee for packaging and delivering these medications (a maximum of $30 for Junior and August Camps and $60 for June and Main Camps). This charge is per camper, not per prescription, and Whitley’s will bill you directly.
In the majority of cases, our medication process works very well. There are a few exceptions due to insurance-related issues, the timing of certain prescriptions, the difficulty of packaging some sequenced medications (such as birth control pills), and with filling prescriptions that are written for more than 30 days at a time. If you have questions about how this medication system will work with your daughter’s specific medication, insurance, or unique situation, please reach out to the pharmacist at Whitley Drugs (828-692-4236, Camps@whitleydrugs.com). Whitley’s will walk you through an alternative process if needed.
Over the Counter Medicines
Our Heath Hut is well stocked with OTC medications such as Tylenol, Tums, cough drops, etc. These can be administered to your daughter as needed by the nurses at no charge to you. Please do not send these medications to camp unless your daughter needs to take them on a regular basis.
If your daughter requires an OTC medication on a regular basis, such as Allegra or Zyrtec for allergies, please download the Pharmacy Form and follow the instructions. These need to be packaged and dispensed by our local pharmacy, Whitley’s, along with any other prescription medications (see above for details). If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Whitley’s (828-692-4236).
As Needed and Emergency Medications
If your daughter has medication that she only takes as needed or in an emergency (i.e. migraine medication, allergy medicine that she only takes as needed, a rescue inhaler for asthma, or an Epi-pen for severe allergic reactions), please follow these steps:
- Enter these medications and details on her Health History Form. Please make sure all the details are accurate and up to date.
- Download and complete the As Needed Medication Form from her camper forms.
- Place this As Needed Medication Form and any other notes or special instructions with the medicine in a Ziploc bag for your daughter to hand to the nurses on Opening Day. The medication needs to be in its original packaging with labels.
We will collect these medications and discuss them with your camper as she checks in, and then we will contact you if we have any questions.
If your camper is going to carry one of these emergency medications (i.e. Epi-pen or rescue inhaler) with her during the day, please check the expiration dates before sending them to camp. We recommend sending two so that we can keep one as a backup at the Health Hut. If she is bringing an emergency medication to camp, but you would like us to keep it at the Health Hut (instead of with her during the day), please indicate that on the As Needed Medication Form.
Vitamins and Supplements
We discourage sending vitamins and supplements to camp unless absolutely necessary. Camp provides healthy meals, fresh air, lots of activity, and lots of sunshine on a daily basis, and campers would rather not spend time in line getting and taking medications unless they really need to do so. If these are absolutely necessary, they will need to be prescribed by your healthcare provider and filled by Whitley’s just like other prescribed medications. You will need to add these to your daughter’s Health History Form, complete the Pharmacy Form, and have the prescription for these sent to Whitley’s 30 days prior to your daughter’s session. If you have any questions or concerns please contact Whitley’s (828-692-4236).
To sum up our policies regarding medication:
We are not able to collect or dispense ANY medications that have not been packaged as required in our medication policy. Please contact Whitley Drugs (828-692-4236) at least 30 days before your daughter’s session if you have questions or concerns about a particular medication.
Medications packaged through Whitley’s (our local pharmacy):
- Prescription medications taken daily or on a regular basis
- Over the counter medications taken daily or on a regular basis, including vitamins, supplements, and melatonin
Medications brought to camp in a Ziploc bag in their original packaging with a completed As Needed Medication Form:
- Emergency medications (Epi-pens, Inhalers) (please check expiration dates!)
- Prescription medicine taken only as needed (in original containers)
- OTC medicine taken only as needed (in original containers)
Medications you may not bring to camp and that we cannot accept directly from you:
- DAILY prescription or daily OTC medicines that have not been packaged by our pharmacist in specific blister packs as required
- Vitamins, supplements, melatonin, and other medicines that are given daily and have not been packaged by a pharmacist as required
Other types of medical treatments:
Please reach out to us prior to the summer if your daughter will need any type of injection (such as allergy shots) or any other medical treatments not mentioned above.
New Prescriptions:
If our camp doctor determines that your daughter needs to be started on a new prescription medication or take an OTC medication regularly while at camp, you will be notified by a nurse and that medication will be filled at Whitley Drugs using our camp-specific blister packs. Your insurance will be billed (or you will be charged) for the cost of the medication, but you will not be charged for packaging or administration.