Drug stores are defined as a sub-organization in any hospital where materials obtained are held in abeyance till inspected, approved, and stocked. A store should have a standard specification of materials and since the stores procure the drugs on behalf of the departments, for a regular flow of materials, the condition of storage should be proper. The success of a drugstore depends on a number of factors some of which are given below:
• Its location and proper layout design.
• Sound financial management.
• Qualified and experienced staff.
• Honesty, sincerity, and hard work.
• Behavior among staff members and with
customers.
Whenever a person decides to open a drug store, the most important consideration is selecting a suitable site
because, for the success of any business, the selection of the site is of prime importance. The main objectives of drugstore management are:
• To stock all drugs and accessories required in the
hospital.
• To procure drugs from different sources.
• To supply drugs to the consuming departments.
• To store drugs required in research work.
• To preserve certain categories of drugs.
• To maintain records of receipt and issue of
drugs.
• To carry out all operations regarding drugs
economically to save revenue.
Layout of Drug Store
The drug store should be preferably located on the
ground floor close to the pharmacy. An
area of at least 600-1000 sq. ft. should be allotted to the medical stores. Adequate
storage facilities should be there so that the drugs, chemicals, biologicals, etc. do not get deteriorated by moisture
or heat.
The ideal drug store should have two entrances, one
for receiving the articles and the other for the issue of materials. Generally, racks
are used for storage of material made of angled iron, having partitions. Costly
items are stored in closed bins. The height of racks depends upon the ceiling height and should be about 2/3rd the height.
Fig.1: Layout of Drug Store
Since large numbers of products are to be stored in
the above store, a definite location code is to be followed in order to
identify the product or material placed in the store. For this purpose, analysis is
carried out after studying their inventory like:
• F S N: Fast moving, Slow moving, Non-moving.
• H M L: Heavy, Medium, Light materials.
According to the above-mentioned categorization, fast-moving materials are placed near the issue exit while non-moving articles are placed far from the exit. Similarly, heavy items are placed at the bottom and light items on the top.
Now a day’s records are maintained using a bin card
system. A ledger or bin card has 4 codes like:
This means panel A, 5th Row, Rack B, and Bin
3 materials can be entered either in a ledger or bin cards in alphabetical order
but this may cause problems as a number of drugs are known by a different names. They may be
categorized and stored depending on their therapeutic effect.