The hospital pharmacy has always been a busy place. But today pharmacies face more obstacles than ever before. These changes are fueled by the growth in volumes of daily medications being dispensed, strict goals to reduce medication errors, and new regulations.

If you were to go to the American Society for Health System Pharmacists’ (ASHP)
vision statement, you would see that two goals are directly related to storage.

It states that ASHP dedicates itself to achieving a vision for pharmacy practice in hospitals and health systems in which, among other things, pharmacists:

• Will be the primary individuals responsible for medication use and distribution systems.

• Will take a leadership role to continuously improve and redesign the medication use process with the goal of achieving significant advances in (a) patient safety, (b) health-related outcomes, (c) prudent use of human resources, and (d) efficiency.

Okay, so how does this relate to the hospital pharmacist?

First, USP 797 is going to or has already had an impact on your pharmacies physical footprint. Most times pharmacies will be adding a compounding area, a glove box, or some modular USP clean room to accommodate
USP 797.

This will cramp your space and dramatically impact your storage requirements. High-density mobile shelving can help you gain back that space.