Not all temperature monitoring technology is created equal. Learn how to improve your facility by moving from laborious digital data loggers to a fully automated monitoring solution.
The list of temperature-sensitive assets that pharmacies, hospitals, and healthcare facilities must protect is nearly endless. Everything from vital medication and vaccines to diagnostic kits and patient food needs to be stored correctly to ensure safety and efficacy. Dependable temperature monitoring technology can ensure accreditation status and keep assets from costly ruination. However, many facilities still utilize risky digital data loggers instead of more advanced and reliable automated monitoring technology.
Why Should I Upgrade from Digital Data Loggers?
Despite perceived time savings, digital data loggers still require plenty of manual labor, taking staff away from patients and increasing the risk of human error. When digital data loggers are in place, staff members must manually extract recorded storage unit temperatures, leaving them with raw data. To create adequate documentation that strives to meet compliance requirements, this raw data requires further refinement, which takes even more time and concentration from other tasks to avoid reporting errors.
This manual process makes proving regulatory compliance more difficult than it needs to be. Plus, finding inaccurate data or excursions is next to impossible due to the sheer number of temperatures extracted and the lack of real-time alerts for out-of-range temperatures. Fortunately, more advanced technology exists that streamlines regulatory compliance, protects valuables, eases workflows, and provides peace of mind.
But how do I upgrade from digital data loggers, you may ask? Follow the steps below, and you’ll be on your way to complete automated monitoring bliss.
1) Complete an Internal Review of Current Monitoring Devices
It’s important to get a comprehensive understanding of your facility’s current digital data logging system to find its temperature monitoring strengths and weaknesses. Dedicate one person or a small task force group to assess system reliability, compliance history, prior asset losses due to improper conditions, and amount of time spent on data extraction and cleanup. Document manual logging errors, incomplete readings, and delayed fixes of out-of-range conditions.
Additionally, be sure to take staff feedback into account. Talk with personnel who work with the digital data logging system to gather day-to-day pain points, ideas for improvement, and the impact it has on their daily tasks.
Combined, the internal review and user feedback will form a solid foundation to help determine areas that need improvement due to digital data loggers’ shortcomings. All this research has the added benefit of being foundational for building a business case for budget requests.
2) Determine the Required Scale of Technology for Your Facility
Following the internal system review, the same staff member or task force must assess their facility’s size and requirements for an upgraded monitoring solution. Components to consider are:
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- The number of storage units requiring monitoring
- The amount and variety of temperature-sensitive assets
- The possibility of future facility expansion
- Evolving regulatory guidelines
The best modern monitoring solutions are scalable to fit every facility from the smallest of mom-and-pop pharmacies to sprawling, multibuilding healthcare campuses. No matter the facility size, an updated monitoring solution should centralize all monitoring data points into one place, without needing manual extraction or data refining.
While updating your monitoring system may seem like a high-cost endeavor, consider the multitude of ways that a stronger system can save money and pay for itself. A solution with a high return on investment is vital to a successful, long-term fit for a new automated monitoring solution — one that protects all assets from ruination and provides more time for staff-patient care. If such a system sounds like a viable, dependable, and worthwhile solution, your facility must consider OneVue Sense® Environmental Monitoring by Primex — a scalable solution that can fit any sized facility.
3) Choose Fully Automated Monitoring for Peace of Mind
Transitioning from digital data loggers to the full automation of OneVue Sense is the best way to eliminate manual logging and data extraction and fully protect your facility’s invaluable items. OneVue Sense features medical-grade devices that provide real-time alerts via email, text message, or phone call if temperatures rise above or fall below your specified range. These early warnings allow for corrective action before it’s too late.
In addition to real-time alerts, OneVue Sense users get access to the cloud-based OneVue® software platform. This mobile-friendly software is accessible on any device with a web browser and grants users access to real-time temperature monitoring data — no extraction necessary. Not only does this free up staff for other tasks and patient care, but it also makes compliance audits a breeze.
OneVue comes standard with the ability to pull on-demand temperature reports to satisfy The Joint Commission and other regulating agencies’ compliance requirements. Users can also schedule automated reports to run at custom intervals depending on their needs.
The advantages of a OneVue Sense solution are plentiful over digital data loggers, but to summarize, OneVue Sense.
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- Eliminates burdensome manual data extraction and refinement
- Sends immediate alerts of out-of-range conditions for asset safety
- Reduces risk of human error
- Grants real-time insight into monitored temperatures
- Provides on-demand and automated reporting capabilities for easy compliance
- Is scalable to fit any facility
Upgrading to OneVue Sense delivers true peace of mind by always protecting critical assets, making compliance effortless, and saving valuable staff time. For hospitals and health systems seeking a reliable, scalable solution for automated temperature monitoring, OneVue Sense is the clear choice to ensure accreditations and boost operational excellence.
Don’t believe us? Check out firsthand user experience about upgrading from digital data loggers to OneVue Sense from Hayat Pharmacy in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
