Ambient medications stored throughout the hospital in medication rooms are often stored inside of automated dispensing cabinets which provide inventory tracking, organization, and security. Refrigerated medications, on the other hand, are often over looked when it comes to these concepts. Temperature sensitive medications not only require tracking, organization, and security, they also need to be monitored for proper storage temperatures making the process of managing them even more difficult than medications stored at ambient.
In addition, there are various guidelines and regulations which apply to refrigerated medications. For example, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) provides strict guidelines on the proper storage and temperature monitoring practices for vaccines. There are also specific regulations around storing controlled substances in the refrigerator as well as safely storing neuromuscular blocking agents used for intubation. All of these guidelines need to be considered when thinking about your approach to refrigerated medication storage in the pharmacy, as well as on the units.
In our upcoming webinar on Thursday, January 25th 2018, Dr. Jessalynn (White) Henney, PharmD, will discuss the importance of safely storing your refrigerated medications.
Dr. Jessalynn (White) Henney, PharmD, currently serves as the Medication Safety Director at Community Health Network (CHNw). Through multidisciplinary teams, Dr. Henney oversees the strategic management of medication safety, for both acute care and ambulatory care services, focusing on all steps of the medication use process. Currently, she co-chairs the Indianapolis Coalition for Patient Safety (ICPS) Medication Safety workgroup, and is a member of the ICPS Contrast Media and Executive workgroups.
She will give real world examples of how to resolve refrigerated storage issues by using LEAN methodology. Moreover, she will give tangible takeaways for you to implement some of these practices the minute you sign off the webinar. Register to attend by following the link below.
