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Storage Practice for Pharmaceuticals

An often overlooked aspect of the healthcare industry, or at least one of its less glamorous facets, is storage. When you go to the pharmacy, do you ever wonder where they keep all those pills? Or maybe you’re a healthcare industry professional with a lot of product to stock and shelve and you’re just not sure how to do it? Whatever your interest in health care storage, we’ve got some tips and practices here for you!

 

Keep Your Stock Rotated

Much like food storage, keeping medical stock rotated and fresh is vital. Medicine expires just like so many other things, even if the expiration (and warnings) aren’t as obvious as it is with food. When you look into health care shelving options, try to find storage bins you can store on them that will allow you to easily identify expiration dates, arrange products in order of which you need to sell or ship out first, and make them easy to reorganize if needed. This way you can be sure your customers are getting the freshest and safest medical products available.

 

Store Everything in the Proper Environment

Many medicines, particularly liquids or certain types of pill depending on the ingredients, require certain types of storage - away from direct sunlight, in certain temperatures, and even separate from other types of prescription medicine to prevent accidental contamination. The FDA also recommends to keep emergency electrical extensions around in the event of a power outage to prevent spoiling or issues with your supplies.

 

Secured Record & Medicine Storage

A large part of pharmaceutical storage is the safekeeping of the associated records. Many federal and state regulations require you to keep patient records safely locked away to ensure confidentiality, so your record storage shelving units will need to be kept under lock and key, in a separate and secured room only trusted employees can access. Many pharmaceuticals need to be locked up too - certain FDA requirements specify that medicine qualifying as ‘narcotics’ also have to be stored in a locked facility or safe, separate from other drugs that could become contaminated.

 

Keeping these tips in mind will help to ensure your facilities meet federal standards and will make sure your customers receive the highest quality product possible!

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