Recalls Are Where the Hours Quietly Go

What the drug recall process really asks of a health system pharmacy and where the time goes.

The FDA's enforcement reports listed 765 recalled drug products in 2025. Most health system pharmacy leaders couldn't tell you how many of those touched their shelves. They could tell you how the last one felt.

A drug recall rarely shows up as a crisis. It shows up as a notice, a lot number and a list of places to check. Then a pharmacist or technician steps away from their regular work to go looking. Multiply that across a year and recalls become one of the largest pieces of unplanned labor in the pharmacy. It also rarely shows up in a budget.

FDA drug recall classes: not every recall is urgent, but every recall takes work

FDA sorts drug recalls into three classes by risk: Class I, Class II, and Class III.

• Class I: "a situation in which there is a reasonable probability that the use of or exposure to a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death."
• Class II: "a situation in which use of or exposure to a violative product may cause temporary or medically reversible adverse health consequences or where the probability of serious adverse health consequences is remote."
• Class III: "a situation in which use of or exposure to a violative product is not likely to cause adverse health consequences."

The class tells you how fast to move. It doesn't change how much searching the pharmacy has to do. A Class III recall still means finding every unit of the affected lot across every location. That's why recall volume matters as much as recall severity. Hundreds of lower-risk recalls a year can add up to more labor than a handful of urgent ones.

What the drug recall process asks of a health system pharmacy

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) is the professional organization for hospital and health-system pharmacists. Its Guidance on Medication Recalls (May 2023) lays out what a pharmacy should do for each recall that reaches its inventory. In practice, the ASHP drug recall process comes down to five steps.

1. Run inventory reports. Find out whether the recalled product and lot were ever received and where they may have gone.
2. Check every location. That means every pharmacy, unit, automated dispensing cabinet and emergency cart.
3. Quarantine the product. Pull affected stock and keep it separate so it can't be dispensed.
4. Document the response. Record what was found, where it was found and what was done with it.
5. Recheck later. Go back and confirm nothing was missed or restocked.

None of these steps is hard on its own. The problem is that each one is done for every recall, in every location, often by hand.

Where the hours go in a drug recall

At one health system LSPedia works with, a single recall took several days from start to finish. That's not unusual. The time disappears in a few predictable places.

Finding the lot. Inventory reports often show the product but not the lot. So the search turns physical, with staff reading lot numbers off packages one at a time.

Covering the footprint. A single hospital might have a central pharmacy, satellite pharmacies, dozens of dispensing cabinets and crash carts on every floor. A health system multiplies that by every facility. Each location is a stop on the checklist.

Proving it was done. Documentation is where a careful response becomes a slow one. Notes live in emails, spreadsheets and paper logs. Pulling them together for a report or an audit takes its own round of work.

Coming back. The recheck is easy to skip when the team is already behind. It is also the step that catches the product that was restocked after the first sweep.

The cost isn't only hours. Every hour spent on a recall is an hour a pharmacist isn't spending on clinical review, patient counseling or the rest of the operation.

How much do drug recalls cost your pharmacy? A quick self-test

If you're not sure what recalls cost your pharmacy, start with three questions.

• How many recalls did your team work last month?
• How many hours did each one take?
• Who checked the lot numbers by hand?

If the answers are "we're not sure," "a lot" and "whoever was available," you're not alone. Most health systems don't track recall labor as its own line. That makes it easy to underestimate.

How OneScan helps health systems find recalled lots

The slowest part of a recall is answering a simple question: did we get this lot, and where is it now? LSPedia's Recall Management is built to answer.

Recall Management alerts your team when recalled product is in your stock and helps you find the affected lots. The search starts with what you need to pull instead of a walk through every unit.

Recall Management is part of LSPedia's Serialized Lifecycle Management (SLM), which brings recalls, expiries, returns and withdrawals together in one coordinated workflow. The goal is simple: less time searching shelves and chasing paperwork and more time for the work only pharmacists can do.

More than 150 organizations have already moved to OneScan, historical records included. Every health system customer gets a dedicated account manager, phone and email support, audit support and open office hours at no extra cost. You can see the full picture of how OneScan supports health systems, from receiving to recalls, on our health systems page.

Recalls won't stop coming. The hours they take don't have to stay the same.

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FAQ

What is a drug recall?

A drug recall is when a company removes a drug from the market, either on its own, at FDA’s request or by FDA order.

What are the three classes of FDA drug recalls?

The FDA sorts drug recalls by risk. Class I can cause serious harm or death. Class II may cause temporary or reversible harm. Class III is unlikely to cause harm. Every class still requires pharmacies to find and pull the affected lots.

How many FDA drug recalls were there in 2025?

The FDA’s enforcement reports listed 765 recalled drug products in 2025, based on openFDA data.

What should a hospital pharmacy do when a drug is recalled?

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Guidance on Medication Recalls (May 2023) calls for running inventory reports, checking every pharmacy, unit, dispensing cabinet and emergency cart, quarantining the product, documenting the response and rechecking later.

How long does a drug recall take a health system pharmacy?

A single drug recall can take a health system pharmacy several days. At one health system LSPedia works with, it took several days from start to finish. Time depends on system size, how many locations stock the product and whether lots can be looked up electronically.

How does OneScan help with drug recalls?

LSPedia’s Recall Management alerts health system pharmacy teams when recalled product is in their stock and helps them find the affected lots. It is part of LSPedia’s Serialized Lifecycle Management (SLM), which brings recalls, expiries, returns and withdrawals together in one workflow.

Sources

• FDA Enforcement Reports, 2025 (openFDA, pulled Sep 30, 2026).
• ASHP Section of Inpatient Care Practitioners, Guidance on Medication Recalls, last updated May 2023
• FDA, Recalls Background and Definitions, checked Oct 22, 2026
• LSPedia, Serialized Lifecycle Management, checked Oct 22, 2026

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