Instead of just a supply chain from manufacturer to a brick and mortar pharmacy, there is now a second supply chain leg from the mail order pharmacy to the patient residence.
This longer supply chain increases the amount of time that medication is exposed to some of those temperature extremes.
Attempt to minimize the time delivery packages remain outside, especially during winter months. If you plan to be out of town, make sure a friend or neighbor can collect delivery packages and keep at a safe temperature as soon as possible to avoid extreme weather conditions.
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Date of birth. ZIP code. Gender Male Female Prefer not to say. Many medicines can be maintained in temperatures as low as 52 degrees F, such as the liquid form of the antibiotic amoxicillin , or interferon beta , which is used for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.
A few medications can even maintain their composition if they are frozen. There are no medications that can be stored at temperatures above 86 degrees F, since hot temperatures tend to degrade most formulations. For this reason, storage and transport of medications in tropical climates require extra care and attention.
Some medications that have to be stored at room temperature can tolerate what is known as "controlled excursions"—short periods to accommodate necessities such as shipping—at temperatures up to 86 degrees F. Some examples of medication storage recommendations:. If you are getting your medication from a compounding pharmacy, your healthcare provider has prescribed you a specific formulation that is not readily available.
These medications are prepared individually for each person, not in high volume like most commercial drugs. Pharmacists must follow strict protocols. Often, especially with liquid or injectable compounds, these formulations require restrictive storage and transport temperatures, and may not last as long as most medications. There are a number of factors that can expose your medications to dangerously high temperatures.
You can take some steps to prevent heat-related degradation of your medications. If your medication has already been exposed to high temperatures, talk to your pharmacist to see if you need to replace it. Your next step should be a call to your health insurance company or HMO, who may be able to replace your medication at no cost or reimburse you for a replacement prescription.
How to safely store medicines in cold weather… Review the storage information of the medications you take to be aware of the temperature recommendations. Do not store medications in your car or trunk for extended periods in cold climates. Remove them from the car when you are stepping out. Ask your pharmacy if they have an emergency generator to maintain temperature control of refrigerated medications.
If you have the option, order any of your mail order prescriptions in packages with temperature control. Have medications ordered by mail or Internet pharmacies send to you by overnight delivery methods and be there to accept packages. But Boesing wants insurers and their PBMs to reconsider these incentives and their practices in light of temperature concerns.
She says they must ensure that their patients have easy access to retail pharmacies — unless the mail-order services can prove that drugs are getting to patients at the right temperatures. Inside an enormous OptumRX warehouse in a Kansas City suburb, lines of orange prescription bottles fly along conveyor belts, while pharmacists scan bar codes and technicians refill bins of pills.
Lead pharmacist Alysia Heller explains that this shipping behemoth, which sends out as many as , prescriptions a day, includes a system to account for weather. But at OptumRX and across the industry, that level of temperature-controlled shipping is usually reserved only for a relatively small number of drugs — such as certain types of insulin, or hepatitis C drugs that have specific refrigeration requirements.
Standard, room-temperature medications like most drugs for blood pressure or cholesterol, which make up the vast majority of prescriptions shipped are typically sent in bubble mailers without any temperature monitors. Stephen Eckel , a pharmacy professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said those practices can lead to some drugs being damaged. But Adam Fein , a consultant on pharmaceutical economics and drug distribution, called the temperature concerns overblown. Some room-temperature drugs are approved to spend up to 24 hours in temperatures from as low as the upper 50s to as high as degrees.
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