Receiving a Shipment

Part of Trial Pharmacy (PHARM) Training: Receipt and Storage.

About 2 minutes. Free, in your language, no account needed.

Why this matters

Receipt is the first link in the custody chain. If it is weak, nothing downstream can be proved.

It is also the last moment when a problem can be identified before the product enters your stock and your reconciliation.

What to check on arrival

The temperature logger. Read it before you put anything away. If it shows an excursion, the shipment is quarantined, not shelved.

Quantity against the shipping document. Count it. Do not accept the number on the paper.

Kit numbers. Against the manifest, not just the total.

Condition. Damage, broken seals, thawed cold packs.

Expiry dates. Recorded now, so supply planning uses real dates.

Quarantine is the default for anything uncertain

If the logger has not been read, if it shows an excursion, or if the count does not match, the shipment goes to quarantine.

Quarantine means physically separated and clearly marked, not just noted mentally. A segregated shelf with a label prevents the dispensing that a note in a diary does not.

Release comes from the sponsor, and only from the sponsor.

Record receipt the same day

Date received, quantity, kit numbers, condition, logger result, who received it, and where it was placed.

An entry written a week later cannot establish that the logger was read on arrival, which is the one fact the whole excursion process depends on.

In practice

A shipment arrives at the end of a long day with an unread logger.

You do not shelve it and read the logger tomorrow. You read it now, or you quarantine the shipment until you do.

Product on the usable shelf is product that can be dispensed by a colleague who assumes it was checked.

What this looks like when it goes wrong

A delivery is placed in the fridge on arrival and the logger is downloaded two days later. It shows a twelve-hour excursion in transit.

Two participants have already been dispensed from that shipment. What was a product question is now a participant exposure question, and the site must report both.

Key takeaways