Inventory Management, Storage, and Drug Quality
Core concepts
Understand stock control, ordering, receiving, and reconciliation; the importance of first-expiry-first-out (FEFO) rotation; and the conditions required for proper storage - temperature ranges, protection from light and moisture, and secure storage of controlled and high-risk medicines. Know the meaning of room temperature, refrigerated, and frozen storage, and why excursions matter. Understand how to identify expired, recalled, or degraded products and the correct action (quarantine and removal from active stock). Be familiar with the purpose of batch numbers, expiry dates, and recall procedures.
Traps in questions
Questions often test the first action when a product is found to be expired or recalled (quarantine and remove, then document and follow recall instructions), or the correct storage condition for a specific product. Watch for confusion between FEFO and FIFO, and for options that suggest returning a recalled product to the shelf. Temperature-excursion questions often hinge on whether the product can still be used, which requires pharmacist or manufacturer guidance.
Rule of thumb
Rotate by earliest expiry, store within labeled conditions, and quarantine anything suspect. When in doubt about a product's integrity or a temperature excursion, do not dispense - escalate.
Worked example
A refrigerator holding vaccines reads 12 °C overnight instead of the required 2–8 °C. The correct response is to keep the product segregated, record the excursion, and contact the pharmacist or manufacturer for a stability decision - not to discard or dispense it without guidance.