Within how much time does a scheduled medica- tion need to be administered to a patient?

The ISMP developed guidelines for the administering of medications in an acute care facility where medications are to be administered either 30 minutes before or 30 minutes after the scheduled time for the drug to be administered to the patient. The guidelines only apply to scheduled medications, which are all maintenance doses that are administered in a standard, repeated cycle of frequency, such as q4h, QID, TID, BID, daily, and so on.