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Many sample closet medications are expired
Introduction:
Samples are widely used in office practice. It is not known how many sample medications are expired and therefore not useful to patients.
Methods:
We inventoried 10 sample closets in primary care offices to quantify the number of expired medications.
Results:
Of the 12,581 drug packages and boxes we inventoried in 10 sample closets, 14% of medications were expired. Sample closets varied widely in their organization; the range of expired medications in the 10 closets was 0% to 28%.
Conclusion:
Many sample closet medications are expired, indicating a substantial amount of waste.
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