3 Essentials Cold Storage Tips and Practices That Every Pharmacist Need To Follow

It is not an easy task to run a pharmacy, although it seems to be. If you are an owner of a pharmacy, you need to handle the critical assets--equipment and medicine--with care and caution.

A cold-storage, also known as a refrigerator, is vital for every pharmacy to store medicines, vaccines, and other similar items in the right environment. But, you need to keep your refrigerator in good condition to serve its purpose.

Suppose you fail to perform regular maintenance of your refrigerator. In that case, it might lead to poor refrigeration and freezer performance that can damage the medicine and other stuff you are storing. You need to store many medicines and vaccines at specific temperatures to maintain efficacy and safety. Insulin, liquid antibiotics, eye creams, ear drops, and many vaccines call for such regulated temperature environments.

Here we recommend three simple best practices to streamline the cold storage procedures that will enable you to maintain the efficacy and safety of your medicines. Read on:

#1 Regular Cleaning

Adhere to the practice of regularly cleaning your refrigerators and freezers where you store medicines and such stuff. Subsequently, sanitize the equipment to restrict bacterial contamination that can affect your employees and patients apart from damaging medications and vaccines.

Make sure that the one who cleans the refrigerator or freezer unplugs it before the cleaning procedure.

The best way of cleaning is to use a soft cloth soaked in warm water and a neutral cleaning agent. It is good not to use strong solvents or bleach to avoid damaging the equipment. Wipe the interior and the exterior of the equipment and allow every component to dry before you store medicines or vaccines again. Cleaning will help to restrict the growth of bacteria and maintain the items in good condition.

Do not neglect to clean the condenser coils. If the condenser or heat exchanger accumulates dirt or gets clogged, air cannot circulate freely. As a result, you will see a suboptimal performance, and not only that, its lifespan can become shorter and consume more electricity, raising the bills. Your cleaning staff can easily remove the dirt with an air jet's help and subsequently remove the remaining dust from the fins using a soft dry brush.

It is an impactful idea to create a checklist with dates for routine cleaning for each unit and ensure that your cleaning staff adheres to the list.

#2 Defrosting

During your pharmacy's working hours, you need to open and close the refrigerator door many times. As a result, you might see a build-up of ice or frost on the refrigerator or freezer door.

It happens due to the outflow of refrigerated air and inflow of warm air, which might contain humidity that causes accumulation of frost and ice. Consequently, the door may not close properly.

Remove the ice or frost build-up from the inner doors and door seals when it accumulates. Refrain from using an icepick as it can damage the equipment. Instead, use a plastic ice scraper.

You can also implement some proper steps to prevent the ice or frost build-up. Ask your employees to pick up and put items from the refrigerator as quickly as possible. And it will also help if you place all items facing upward with clear labels to enable your employees to quickly pick up the items without keeping the door open for too long.

While many refrigerators come with an auto defrost, it is advisable to choose the manual option. Although auto-defrost units are more convenient, it can disturb the stability and uniformity of temperature due to the defrost cycle warming the cabinet's interior, raising the temperature.

With a manual defrost, you can get a more stable and uniform temperature inside the cabinet. A manual-defrost also calls for periodic maintenance.

However, new defrosting technology is in the offing called the hot gas defrosting system, with which there is no possibility of warming the interior of the cabinet.

#3 Cabinet Space Management

It is necessary to neither over stock nor under stock your refrigerator or freezer to avoid airflow obstruction and the creation of uneven temperatures within the cabinet. Keep all items within the cabinet boundary to facilitate airflow to the interior of the unit. If you overstock, it can become a challenge for your employees to find the items quickly, and that will prolong the exposure of your items to warm air and obstruction of airflow.

Avoid keeping the freezer empty as it will be susceptible to temperature drops when the doors open. It is advisable to keep the freezer around 30 percent full to lower the sensitivity to temperature drops.

Although a medical refrigerator or freezer has slight temperature variations throughout the interior, it is good to put the most temperature-sensitive medications in the unit's center. It will help to maintain optimal temperatures.

Conclusion

If you are running a pharmacy, you must be owning cold storage to store medicine, vaccines, and other such items. But it would help if you never undermined the importance of properly maintaining the cold storage as the maintenance plays a significant role in keeping the items in the right condition. It would be best if you took ample care to follow the best practices to boost efficiency and prolong the storage life. It will enable you to maintain the integrity of temperature-sensitive medications.