Medication stability: from pharmacies to patients’ homes—is consistent storage achievable?

The stability of medications is crucial for their effectiveness and safety throughout their shelf life. Pharmacists play a key role in storing medications at the right temperatures to maintain their stability. However, once medications are dispensed to patients, ensuring optimal storage becomes challenging. A notable discrepancy exists between the controlled conditions in pharmacies and the variable conditions in patients' homes. While pharmacists adhere to strict guidelines, patients may not consistently maintain recommended storage temperatures due to daily and seasonal fluctuations.1 Short-term temperature excursions may not significantly affect medication stability, depending on the drug and the extent of the deviation. Many medications can tolerate brief temperature changes without major degradation. However, prolonged exposure to temperatures outside the recommended range can reduce efficacy or pose safety risks.2 3 This past summer, our hospital experienced a blackout of the centralised air conditioning due to a fire, causing temperatures on various floors to rise above 25°C within hours. Despite the emergency plan, which maintained medications between 15–25°C, a data logger recorded a brief temperature increase of 0.6°C and 0.3°C above 25°C lasting up to 1 hour 10 min. This led us to quarantine the affected medications and consult pharmaceutical … Correspondence to Dr Alessio Provenzani; aprovenzani{at}ismett.edu