As a veterinary professional, you might have hazardous drugs in your practice and may use them regularly in the treatment of the dogs, cats and other pets that are brought to your clinic for treatment. Of course, it is probably very important to you to keep humans and animals both safe from these hazardous drugs. Plus, you probably want to make sure that your clinic is compliant with all hazardous drug regulations. These are a few tips that you should follow when storing hazardous drugs in your veterinary clinic.

1. Store Them Separately

For one thing, it is important to keep hazardous drugs stored separately from more common and less dangerous drugs. Then, you can help prevent a distracted employee from accidentally grabbing the wrong medication or other similar errors. In many cases, keeping hazardous drugs in a different case and even in a different area of the clinic is a good idea.

2. Restrict Access

You don't want for just any employee -- or client, for that matter -- to be able to access the hazardous drugs in your clinic. It's also key to be able to keep track of who has had access to your hazardous drugs so that you will know who to hold responsible in the event that there is a problem. Therefore, installing an access control system in the case where hazardous drugs are stored is a good idea. Then, only those who have a code or badge will be able to access the hazardous drugs that are being stored in your clinic. Additionally, if you can monitor and track which employees have accessed the hazardous drugs as well as when they access them, this is even better.

3.  Label Hazardous Drugs Properly

Even if they are stored separately, it is critical to make sure that all of the hazardous drugs that you keep on hand in your clinic are labeled properly. This can help prevent mix-ups and can help ensure that employees always handle them as they are supposed to be. Plus, if they somehow end up in areas of the clinic where they shouldn't be, such as if they get left out of their cases, those who come in contact with them will know to proceed with caution.

As you can see, there are a few tips that you should follow when it comes to storing and keeping hazardous drugs in your veterinary clinic. Follow these tips so that you can ensure that you keep both humans and animals safe. For more information, contact your local usp 800 specialists.