Title: Analysis of the cold chain in the hospital pharmacy: case of the university hospital centre in Morocco

Authors: Manal Tamir; Raddouane Chiheb; Fatima Ouzayd; Hajar Mansouri

Addresses: ADMIR, Rabat IT Center, ENSIAS, University Mohamed V, Rabat, Morocco ' ADMIR, Rabat IT Center, ENSIAS, University Mohamed V, Rabat, Morocco ' Smart Systems Laboratory, Rabat IT Center, ENSIAS, University Mohamed V, Rabat, Morocco ' LISER, Team EAS, ENSEM, University Hassan II, Casablanca, Morocco

Abstract: The drugs market has experienced lately a significant diversification in the types of medical treatments and some of them use medicines that require a mode of preservation under specific temperature ranges. In fact, the purpose of the drugs cold chain is to guarantee the respect of these temperature ranges throughout the drug circuit, namely transport and storage until the administration to patients. Actually, a large number of healthcare organisations suffer from the defectiveness of the cold chain products following the non-compliance of the required temperatures. Sometimes, the defect is not detected due to temperature traceability problems and the products can be administrated to the patients and have serious effects on their health. The main purpose of this paper is then to analyse the cold chain in the hospital pharmacy. The analysis will concern the general cartography proposed in this paper, namely the different actors and procedures of this chain. Finally, the failures of the drugs cold chain in the Moroccan regulation will be analysed and thus will be proposed the different orientations that the government must adopt in order to follow the progress of the international regulation.

Keywords: cold chain; hospital pharmacy; analysis; cartography; domestic regulation; drugs; international regulations; Morocco; temperature; traceability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAOM.2019.103164

International Journal of Advanced Operations Management, 2019 Vol.11 No.4, pp.317 - 330

Accepted: 24 Mar 2019
Published online: 21 Oct 2019 *

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