Infusion centers play a critical role in treating individuals living with cancer, autoimmune diseases, and other chronic illnesses. These usually stand-alone facilities provide patients treatment via intravenous infusion in an environment that’s often less busy and more comfortable than a typical hospital setting. Additionally, receiving treatment at infusion centers is likely to be the most cost-effective option for patients seeking this type of care.
Wrap all these benefits together, and patient experience and satisfaction can skyrocket. However, an infusion center is only as good as the treatments it provides, as ultimately, the goal is to help patients better manage their illness. Infusion centers must ensure their stock of infusion therapies remains stored safely to protect their efficacy — as well as the infusion center’s usually hefty upfront investment — and automated technology can help.
Why Infusion Center Storage Monitoring is Essential
Beyond the always-paramount reason of patient safety, protecting IV biologics, medications, and therapies is essential for an infusion center’s bottom line and reputation. For example, Infliximab (often branded as Remicade) is a widely used infusion medication used to treat patients with autoimmune diseases like ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, and rheumatoid arthritis. A single vial containing 100 mg of Infliximab is frequently billed at $1,100, and patients commonly receive four to six vials per infusion appointment, meaning the amount billed per appointment is approximately between $4,000 and $6,000.
If an infusion center is doing 30 infusions of Infliximab a day, that’s potentially $120,000 to $180,000 in billed revenue daily. These numbers highlight only one type of infusion therapy and its importance to revenue. Infliximab must be stored in refrigerators at temperatures between 36 °F and 46 °F (2 °C and 8 °C). If stored incorrectly, infusion centers risk spoiling their Infliximab supplies and the capital they generate from providing infusions.
In addition to harming the bottom line, inappropriate storage temperatures can also damage irreplaceable lab samples and, therefore, the reputation of an infusion center. For example, stem cell transplants, also known as bone marrow transplants, are performed for patients with high-risk and life-threatening blood diseases. To maintain potency, stem cells and bone marrow that are ready for transplantation must be stored in the refrigerator at 36 °F to 46 °F (2 °C to 8 °C), with long-term storage requiring cryogenic freezing. If stem cells and bone marrow remain at room temperature for over 48 hours, they can lose over 90% of critical cells that help fight infections and provide immune defense. If a refrigerator or freezer fails over the weekend, say due to a power outage, a door left open, or a technical issue, the entire supply of stem cells could be lost, causing irreparable damage to not only an infusion center’s reputation but also heavily and negatively impacting patient outcomes.
How to Best Protect Temperature-Sensitive Assets in Infusion Centers
To avoid the nightmares of rescheduling patients, negative press, and losing invaluable assets due to improper storage temperatures, infusion centers need to turn to technology and choose OneVue Sense® Environmental Monitoring by Primex.
This automated monitoring solution is scalable — fitting into small rural infusion centers that only need one sensor just as easy as it can fit large, multibuilding facilities requiring hundreds of sensors. With costs that make sense, even at entry level, the OneVue Sense Temperature Monitoring solution is placed in a refrigerator or freezer (including cryogenic freezers), automatically records internal temperatures, and logs them in the cloud-based OneVue® Software platform.
From there, users can define custom thresholds for low and high temperatures and sign up for text, email, or phone call alerts if any of their temperature probes record an out-of-range condition. These mobile-friendly alerts give infusion center staff — even those out on a home call — time to take corrective action. The alert receiver can either address the temperature excursion themselves or, if offsite, tell a medical or nonmedical staff member to get help. The accountability that these alerts provide further helps protect valuable medications or irreplaceable lab samples.
Also within the software, which is accessible on any device with a web browser, users can demonstrate compliance with guidelines, rules, and regulations for proper storage. Specific, historic temperature data is available within a few clicks, and on-demand report generation makes audit situations a breeze.
Further Expand Patient Satisfaction and Overall Infusion Center Safety
Extending past temperature monitoring, OneVue Sense offers additional solutions that can optimize any infusion center.
