Color-coding process for monitoring medication beyond-use dates

Abstract

Technologies such as radio frequency identification and bar coding help pharmacy staff monitor and track beyond-use and expiration dates. The Joint Commission has developed standards related to medication management and storage in an effort to increase patient safety.1 It is paramount that hospital pharmacies maintain compliance with these standards and that pharmacy staff monitor expiration and beyond-use dates of medications. In order to maintain patient safety as a priority and decrease inventory turnover and waste, hospitals under budgetary constraints may benefit from a tool to assist in the monitoring and inspection of expiration and beyond-use dates, instead of purchasing newer, high-cost, technologies. We describe a quality-improvement project using a novel tool to assist in monitoring medication beyond-use dates. We apply a colored stripe to the paper used in our automated unit-dose packager (figure). The color indicates the month in which the item was repackaged and facilitates checking for beyond-use dates; the colors by themselves do not indicate the year of repackaging. A chart showing the colors and the months they represent is made available to pharmacy staff in all pharmacy locations and on each staff’s personal identification badge. The introduction of color at the initial stage of packaging enables beyond-use-date monitoring at every stage of drug distribution, including the storage and restocking of medications. Pharmacy staff are able to recognize when a medication’s beyond-use date is near or has passed, allowing for continual inspection of the medication before its distribution. This system has also enhanced trust among pharmacy staff members, assisted in the recognition of medication beyond-use dates in larger quantities, helped improve stock rotation, allowed for easier recognition of inventory that has reached its beyond-use date in the automated inventory cabinet, and decreased inventory turnover and waste. The color-coding system is a continual reminder to staff of the importance of tracking medication beyond-use dates. Staff response to the color changes each month has remained positive, and suggestions for continual improvement are encouraged.