Controlled drug storage requirements: What you need from a strong room supplier

Getting a strong room for medicine storage that fully fits your business needs, and also meets all legal requirements for security, is not as easy as it looks. Here we list some key aspects to consider when choosing a vendor.

A trusted supplier with a solid track record

Whenever you are making a capital investment, it is important to rely on an experienced supplier that has a reputation you can trust and who knows the regulations. They also should be able to support you with consulting and offer you the right solution whether it is large or small, that is best suited to your particular needs and growth plans.

Provide necessary legal audit documentation

It is particularly important that any supplier of a strong room can reassure the customer that they can provide all documentation needed for audit purposes to satisfy both the national drug regulations as well as the local authorities. Examples of these documents include manufacturer’s drawings, letter of conformity, design calculations, product certificates, etc.

Ability to offer all sizes of rooms

Regardless of whether you are highly experienced in the safe storage and handling of controlled drugs, or completely new to this sector, when adding new strong room capacity it is advantageous if the supplier can provide whatever size room you need – ranging from as small as 12 square meters up to large sizes of perhaps 46m long, 16m wide and 15m tall.

Scale to support both new constructions, as well as expansions and rebuilds

It is also very advantageous, both in terms of future growth as well as best utilization of your assets, if the company chosen to provide your strong room also offers the capability to extend or relocate existing strong rooms. If the project involves a capacity expansion at an existing strong room, it is very important that the project supplier can handle the work without impeding or disturbing the ongoing materials handling operations. The ability to offer both welded construction as well as bolted construction, which avoids the necessity for hot works such as welding on-site, is also an advantage.

Certified safe locks to provide linked access control and audit trails

For high-security access control and the possibility to provide an audit trail if needed, it is important that the strong room supplier can also deliver certified safe locks for its vault doors. Typical high-level access control includes a two-step authentication process, which requires the user to have both a swipe card and a PIN code.

After-support and service packages

To keep your strong room functioning smoothly and efficiently for the long term, the supplier should be able to provide maintenance and service packages. An annual preventative maintenance is recommended. And in case of any unexpected issues, it is important to know that help is not very far away since serious problems with, as an example, the vault door can have life or death impact for some patients.

Want to learn more about the important factors to consider when planning a strong room and the key things you should look for in a supplier? If so, download our free PDF entitled “Strong Rooms for Controlled Drugs: A Guide for the Pharma Sector” by clicking here.

Based on our long experience at Gunnebo as a trusted supplier of strong rooms for controlled drugs, we are happy to support you in any project in which you are looking to work with a professional, well-reputed and reliable partner. Get in touch with us, click here.