Why Successful Health Care Refrigeration Systems Start With Safety

Ensuring the functional safety of vaccine and lab refrigeration systems is critical today. Adverse drug effects are among the most common medical errors in the US health care system. Additionally, vaccine hesitancy rooted in public skepticism has hindered our ability to mitigate the spread of severe infectious diseases.

Regarding severe infectious diseases, COVID-19 vaccines are a perfect example of the need for safe refrigeration systems. The Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines each require their own environmental settings during storage, handling, and distribution to maintain efficacy and safety. Providers must position themselves to not only adhere to these temperature requirements but also prove they followed regulatory compliance protocols until each shot reached an arm. This is why refrigerator systems and IoT-enabled cold chain monitoring tools took center stage at the height of the pandemic’s initial vaccine rollout.

Although the pandemic is now behind us, the importance of implementing safe refrigeration systems is the same as ever. In addition to vaccine storage, refrigeration systems are also utilized for blood plasma, fertility clinics, cancer research, and a host of other health care inventories, offerings, and initiatives. Often, lab samples are the byproduct of years of research and clinical trials that have millions in funding behind them.

With critical patient outcomes on the line, health care providers can’t afford to be caught behind the curve regarding refrigeration system risk management. All it takes is the right temperature excursion at the wrong time to cause damaging ramifications. Implementing a safety-centric refrigeration system requires a well-defined approach built on digitalized condition monitoring, proactive asset management, and continual guidance and training.

Digitalized Condition Monitoring

Digitalizing condition monitoring is vital to a successful refrigeration system. Leveraging the integrated use of IoT, prescriptive analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) tools enables health care employees to automate fundamental aspects of condition monitoring that are often complex and error-prone. When integrated into a cohesive framework, these solutions generate continuous feedback loops indicating a refrigerator’s operating state and function. Suppose it unexpectedly fails to maintain its optimal temperature settings. In that case, the feedback loops alert employees in real time with guidance to alleviate the issue before irreparable damage to inventory is caused.

It also helps streamline employee workflows for higher levels of operational efficiency. Envision a lab technician who, among many other duties, ensures hundreds of temperature-sensitive samples are stored in optimal settings. Rather than wasting 2 hours of her shift manually reporting on a physical spreadsheet that each asset remained in compliance, the integrated solution automates that process for her in real time, freeing up valuable time for her to focus on higher-priority tasks that have a more direct impact on patient outcomes. This benefit is critical given the widespread staffing shortages across health care and pharmaceutical enterprises.

Proactive Asset Management

Another crucial component of implementing a successful refrigeration system is proactive asset management. A proactive approach to asset management focuses on performing preventative maintenance instead of reactive repairs, which helps prevent unexpected breakdowns that result in damaged inventory and prolonged operational downtime. However, navigating the intricacies of preventative maintenance is complex, especially for large organizations that must manage and monitor hundreds of refrigeration systems across multiple locations.

This is where digitalized task management systems are worth their weight in gold. They automate the implementation of preventative maintenance measures on high volumes of assets, generating prescriptive insights that direct employees to inspect the suitable refrigeration systems at the right times based on smart health key performance indicators, like comparing set points with hold points. The system will notify staff about simple routine assessments that are required and then confirm their completion, which helps avoid mishaps caused by human error (eg, forgotten tasks or miscommunication among employees) and confirms preventative compliance was followed. Forgotten tasks may include re-filling freon, replacing gaskets on left side, not closing the door firmly, etc.

Continual Training

Providing employees with continual training on best practices for effectively managing refrigeration systems and following compliance protocols is imperative to successful implementation. There’s no substitute for positioning your people to succeed, whether guiding them on how to operate cold chain technology, performing routine tasks for inventory management, and deploying emergency protocols in the wake of an excursion. Taking a holistic and organization-wide approach is key. On the one hand, it empowers frontline workers and medical maintenance repair teams to maximize operational efficiency and navigate the complexities of their day-to-day roles. On the other, it helps ensure nonmedical employees are also informed on how to do their part to promote a culture of safe refrigeration system management.

A commitment to safe refrigeration system management has never been more critical across health care today. Digitalized condition monitoring empowers technicians with real-time insights, allowing them to address minor issues before they snowball into critical failures. Proactive asset management fosters a preventative mindset, increasing equipment lifespan and minimizing operational downtime. And continual training equips health care personnel with the right guidance to maintain performance and handle emergencies. By embracing this digitalized, proactive, and educational approach, health care leaders can position their teams to facilitate successful refrigeration system management processes at scale.