A process of safe, secure storage and transfer of prescription medications for patient care in a hospital, clinic, nursing home, or similar health care facility, permits the authorized user to obtain medications for multiple patients along a patient care route, place the medications in respective locking compartments for each patient, and bring the cart to each patient in turn to administer the medications. Scanning in the user ID opens the cart, and the ward or floor medications cabinet displays a 2-D bar code containing patient identification data, the user identification, and one or more delimiter characters indicating that the medication was transferred by the authorized user directly to the cart. For each patient, a patient specific drawer or compartment is unlocked and opened, and the medications are placed into it. This is repeated for each patient on the care route. At each patient bedside, the user scans in the patient ID, which opens only the patient specific drawer. If a medication is obtained when the cart is not at the cabinet, the cabinet labels the medication with a bar code containing a different delimiter. The system maintains an audit of each person handling the medication, and when each event occurred.
