Transport and Receiving of Hazardous Drugs
Transport and receiving questions focus on containment and spill readiness from the loading dock to the pharmacy. HDs arrive in primary packaging (vial, bag, or syringe), secondary packaging (carton or bag), and sometimes tertiary shipping containers. The candidate should understand that intact packaging is the first barrier; receiving staff inspect for damage, leakage, or missing labels before accepting a shipment, and any damaged HD package is treated as a contamination event, not a routine return.
Concepts to know: transport containers should be rigid, leak-proof, and labeled; spills during transport require the same containment steps as compounding spills; and receiving areas should have spill supplies and PPE available. Internal transport from pharmacy to nursing units should keep HDs in closed, labeled containers, and staff should know which items are time-sensitive or require refrigeration.
Traps: (1) accepting a leaking package and "cleaning it up later"; (2) assuming a sealed carton means the drug is safe to handle without PPE; (3) forgetting that transport containers themselves can become contaminated and must be cleaned; (4) mixing HD waste with regular waste during transport. Questions may ask who inspects, what to do with a damaged shipment, or how to label a tote - anchor on "inspect, contain, report, clean."
Worked example: a courier delivers a carton with a damp corner and a chemical odor. The correct response is to isolate the carton, don PPE, notify the supervisor, follow the facility spill procedure, and document. Rule of thumb: if a package looks or smells wrong, stop the chain of custody and treat it as contaminated until proven otherwise.