MEDICATION TRANSPORTATION

AND STORAGE

Prepared by: Rami Mchawrab ,Clinical Educator.

 OUTLINE

I. Introduction.
II. Access to medication storage areas.
III. Storage area and storage requirements
IV. Storage conditions .
V. Transportation of medications.
VI. Fridge checklist.
VII. maintaining and monitoring the storage conditions of refrigerated medications?
 OBJECTIVES

At the end of the presentation, the learner will be able to:

I. know how to Access medication storage areas
II. Know Storage conditions .
III. Know how to Transport medications.

3
 INTRODUCTION

• Medicines should be stored in a way that means they are safe and will be effective when administered.
• All medicines have storage requirements that are specified by the manufacturer.
• You must store medicines securely. Only authorized care home staff should have access.
• Your policies and processes must address the temperatures for storing medicines.
• Know that heat, air, light, and moisture may damage your medicine. Store your medicines in a cool, dry place.

4
 INTRODUCTION

• Medication storage areas must be kept locked at all times or under constant surveillance.
Medication rooms, carts, and other areas containing medications must be locked at all times
when not in use and must at all times be inaccessible to patients or visitors. Non-authorized
staff (including housekeeping staff) require observation.

• Medication storage areas must be secured at all times. Staff who witness an unsecured
medication storage area are responsible to report this to unit supervisor.

• Staff who are authorized to access a medication storage area should only do so at the time this
is required for their assigned duty. 5
 ACCESS TO MEDICATION
STORAGE AREAS
• Medications need to be protected from loss or theft throughout the hospital. To prevent
unauthorized persons from entering storage areas, medications are stored in locked or secured
areas such as pharmacy areas, medication rooms, Omnicell® and code carts.
• The access to medication storage areas is restricted to authorized Sidra staff, which means staff
involved in the medication management process of the relevant area (e.g. medication rooms on
patient care units are accessible to nursing staff and pharmacy staff, while pharmacy areas are
only accessible to pharmacy staff).

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 STORAGE AREA AND STORAGE
REQUIREMENTS
• Storage areas should be designed or adapted to ensure good storage conditions. In particular, storage areas must
be visibly clean, effectively ventilated, dry, adequately lit and ready for use.
• Medication storage areas are used exclusively for medications and medication-related supplies.
• All medications and medication-related supplies are stored 50 cm below the ceiling (to avoid blocking sprinklers
in case of fire) and 10 cm above the ground (to allow for spill management).
• Medications are stored as per manufacturer’s recommendations.
• Storage of medications is separated and categorized by route of administration.
• Medications in pharmacy storage areas are stored where possible in alphabetical order (and grouped per route of
administration) based on the generic medication name.
• Liquid products are placed as much as possible on lower shelves.
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 STORAGE AREA AND STORAGE
REQUIREMENTS
• The use of carton boxes is as much as possible minimized in storage areas inside the hospital.
• Expiration dates are always checked upon receiving medications, dispensing medications, returning medications
to stock, and periodically based on the regular inspections and system generated reports (e.g. Lawson reports,
Omni Celle reports).
• Stock should be appropriately rotated. Medications are placed in a FEFO (First Expiry First Out) manner on
shelves (i.e. products that will expire first in front of products with a later expiry date).
• Products first to expire are used first, thereby ensuring that the remaining shelf life allows for use before the
expiry date.
• Refer to section 6 below: Damaged, Expired and near-expired medications
• When pallets are used (e.g. in SDS areas), space is kept between pallets and between pallets and the storeroom
walls
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 STORAGE CONDITIONS

• Medications must be stored under conditions suitable for product stability as per manufacturer’s
recommendations. Where special storage conditions are required on the label (e.g. temperature, relative humidity),
these should be provided, checked, monitored and recorded. This includes every storage area (e.g. SDS, Pharmacy
areas, and medication rooms).
• Controlled room temperature.
• Humidity.
• Refrigerators
• Freezers

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 STORAGE CONDITIONS
Condition Definition
Freezer Between −25° and −10°
Refrigerator Between 2° and 8°
Cold Any temperature not exceeding 8°
Cool Any temperature between 8° and 15°
Controlled room 20°–25°
temperature Mean kinetic temperature not to exceed 25°. Excursions between 15° and
30° are allowed. Provided the mean kinetic temperature does not exceed
25°, transient spikes up to 40° are permitted as long as they do not exceed
24 h.
Warm Any temperature between 30° and 40°
Excessive heat Any temperature above 40°
Dry place A place that does not exceed 40% average relative humidity at 20°
Storage in original container is considered a Dry place.
Protect from If freezing exposes an article to loss of strength or potency or to 10
freezing destructive alteration of its characteristics.
Protect from light Packaged in a light-resistant Container.
 TRANSPORTATION OF MEDICATIONS

• Medications should be transported in such a way that their integrity is not impaired and that storage conditions are as
much as possible maintained.
• Medications might be delivered within the hospital by Pharmacy staff, nursing staff or porters,
• Except for Narcotic Drugs and Dangerous Psychotropic Substances (NDDPS medications). NDDPS medications
must be delivered by Pharmacy staff or nursing staff only.
Transportation of medications must be secure.
• NDDPS medications must be transported in locked boxes.
• Other medications must be transported in boxes and accompanied by a staff member.
• Vaccines must be transported in designated cool boxes to maintain required temperature.
• Special care should be exercised when using ice-packs. It must be ensured that the vaccine does not come in into
contact with the ice pack, as this may adversely affect the product quality, e.g. by freezing. 11

• When pharmacy staff or porters deliver medications to a patient care unit, the medication is delivered and handed
 FRIDGE CHECKLIST
Appendix A: Refrigerator Temperature Monitoring Form

Location: ______________________________ Date (Month/Year) _______/ ________

Fridge ID (Brand / Number / Location) ________________________________________________________

TEMP / Date 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
AM
0°C
PM
AM
1°C
PM
AM
2°C
PM
AM
3°C
PM
AM
4°C
PM
AM
5°C
PM
AM
6°C
PM
AM
7°C
PM
AM
8°C
PM
AM
9°C
PM
AM
10°C
PM
Daily Sign
If fridge temperature is LESS than 2°C or MORE than 8° C, call Supervisor.
Instructions for use – For each day, please enter the time the reading was taken on the relevant row corresponding to the fridge temperature reading / display
Please document details of any specific cold chain breaches recorded above and action(s) taken:
Date Cold chain incident Action(s) Sign12
 HOW DO YOU MAINTAIN AND
MONITOR THE STORAGE
CONDITIONS OF REFRIGERATED
MEDICATIONS?
Store products on the central shelves of the fridge, not in bins or door
compartments. Also, keep medications at least two to three inches away from the
floor, coils, walls, ceiling, and vents to limit fluctuations in temperature.

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 STORAGE OF MEDICINES

• your processes should cover safe and

appropriate access.
You could consider:
• who has access to medicines
• how to store them safely or securely
• fridge storage (where needed)
 REFERENCES

• Lippincott.
• Sidra medicine polices and procedures.