In this episode, I’ll discuss the CDC Guideline for Disinfection and Sterilization in Healthcare Facilities and how it may pertain to unused and unopened medications that have been in COVID-19 patient rooms.
Avoiding bringing medications into rooms with COVID-19 patients until they are ready to be used is the best way to prevent unnecessary medication waste. However, a common question pharmacists are faced with answering in the current setting of a pandemic and possible increasing medication shortages is: Do unused and unopened medications that have been in COVID-19 patient rooms need to be discarded?
There does not appear to be an explicit answer in any CDC or other guideline to this question.
However, the CDC Guideline for Disinfection and Sterilization in Healthcare Facilities should apply to unused and unopened medications. The CDC breaks down items into 3 categories:
1. Critical items (those that enter the patient’s tissues or vascular system)
2. Semi-critical items (those that come in contact with mucous membranes or nonintact skin)
3. Non-critical items (those that come in contact with intact skin)
Based on these 3 categories, unused and unopened medications appear to be non-critical items. CDC guidelines state that these non-critical items may be cleaned with a low or intermediate disinfectant such as alcohol or bleach.
The same guidelines recommend the use of gloves when disinfecting non-critical items.
While there are no specific guideline recommendations, it would seem prudent to discard any medication that cannot be disinfected in this manner.
Rather than making a unilateral decision on how to handle unused and unopened medications that have been in COVID-19 patient rooms, it is essential to involve your local infection control department in the decision process. The application of these CDC guidelines could eliminate unnecessary medication waste and alleviate or avoid potential medication shortages.
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