Information for Pharmacies that Sustained Damage Due to a Hurricane

If a pharmacy sustained flood and/or other damage in the prescription department, the entire medication inventory – including any prescriptions that may have been awaiting pickup – is unfit for dispensing and must be destroyed.  

If a pharmacy did not sustain any flood or other damage in the prescription department, but did sustain a loss of power for a sustained period of time, please refer to the USP standards for medication product integrity. In particular, the USP has defined the proper temperature for storage of medications. For those medications labeled for storage at “controlled room temperature”, the acceptable range of temperature is 68° to 77°F with allowances for brief deviations between 59° to 86°F.  If you have questions about the standards, please contact USP directly at (800) 227-8772. Pharmacies that lost power and/or air conditioning for several days should consider the strong probability that the medication inventory no longer meets federal standards and should not be considered safe for dispensing.

 Controlled substances damaged or lost (irrecoverably) due to flood or other loss should be documented on a DEA Form 41 (Registrants Inventory of Controlled Substances Surrendered for Disposal). This form is available at http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/21cfr_reports/surrend/index.html. In addition, the pharmacy must report the loss of any non-controlled substances to the Texas State Board of Pharmacy (TSBP).  To document the theft of controlled substances (due to looting, burglary, etc.), pharmacies must prepare a DEA Form 106 to document these losses, and then send copies of that document to the DEA, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the Texas State Board of Pharmacy (TSBP). The pharmacy must maintain a copy of these reports for a period of two years.

Board Rule §291.127 outlines procedures for pharmacies experiencing a disaster including requirements for notifying TSBP if the pharmacy is required to temporarily close or relocate. 

Finally, pharmacies may wish to consider preparing an accurate record of all prescription medication losses to facilitate any claims for product replacement or other assistance.