Evaluating an Automated Temperature-Monitoring System in Medicine and Vaccine Storage Facilities of a Hospital Network

Abstract

Objective: The aims of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of a new automated continuous temperature monitoring system in detecting temperature excursions and describe the challenges of implementing such a system.

Design: This study is an observational before-and-after audit comparing temperature excursions detected in the three months before and three months after the implementation of the new monitoring system at Eastern Health. Inclusion criteria consisted of all medicine and vaccine storage facilities monitored by the new automated temperature monitoring system. Four sites not connected to the new monitoring system were excluded.

Setting: Eastern Health is a large tertiary metropolitan health service in Melbourne, Australia. It operates from 21 locations including seven teaching hospitals, with medicines and vaccines stored in 124 refrigerators, 6 freezers and 101 ambient room temperature storage locations.

Main outcome measures: An analysis of post-implementation data identified a potential association between refrigerator brands and temperature excursion rate.

Results: There was a large increase in the number of temperature excursions detected post-implementation of the new automated monitoring system. 28746, 24 and 8966 temperature excursions were detected post-implementation compared to 344, 0 and 0 pre-implementation in refrigerators, freezers and ambient locations, respectively. The majority of temperature excursions detected in medicine and vaccine fridges were below +2°C (98.4%). One brand of refrigerators was linked to 27231 (94.7%) excursions (p<0.001).

Conclusions: The new temperature monitoring system detects higher number of excursions which provides better visibility of performance, identifies areas of non-compliance, and guides and evaluates solutions. This study recommends that freezers and ambient storage locations are monitored as robustly as refrigerators, temperature monitoring devices are placed in close proximity to pharmaceuticals, and that healthcare organisations avoid purchasing unreliable medicine and vaccine refrigerators. Finally, this study suggests the development of a National Medicine Storage Guideline.