The importance of quality temperature monitoring systems with in hospitals cannot be overstated. These data loggers are crucial in maintaining day to day operations of medical facilities nationwide. Real-time monitoring of environmental conditions allows building managers, food and safety officers and laboratory technicians to ensure perishable goods are safely chilled and stored.
The slightest change in temperature readings can be the difference between life-saving medications and ineffective - or even worse, compromised pharmaceuticals.
What are the applications for wireless temperature monitoring?
It is important to consider temperature data for every room and function in a hospital.
Facility Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)
Assessing humidity levels and other IAQ parameters in patient waiting, treatment and recovery areas serves a couple of applications. Firstly, it is used to create ideal environmental conditions to minimise the spread of infections. This is achieved by maintaining cool indoor conditions to monitor bacterial growth coupled with improving ventilations to reduce the risk of airborne illness. The second application is maintaining visitor comfort levels. Relative humidity and temperature are the main drivers behind this.
Food safety monitoring
Food produced in medical facilities is held to the same high safety standards as other New Zealand hospitality business. However, there are additional challenges for the hospital caterers. This includes maintaining food quality with sick patients and potentially contaminated visitors around. Real-time data monitoring of both preparation and storage is vital in ensuring that perishable goods are compliant with temperature and humidity conditions established in the New Zealand Food Safety Standards.
Pharmaceutical products safety
Cold storage is required for a number if medications and bio materials, such as blood and organs. It is required by the World Health Organisation that data loggers are accurate within 0.5 degrees Celsius. These need to be installed in all cold rooms and freezers used to store time and temperature sensitive pharmaceutical products.
The role of temperature in safely storing hospital stock
If medicines are stored incorrectly they expire and lose their potency. This is disastrous for a hospital. However, it is not nearly as dangers as medications chemical or physical structure changing, due to exposure to conditions outside of their safe temperature range. For example, some pills disintegrate if left outside of chilled conditions for too long. This can cost hospital thousands in wasted stock.
This is equally important with bio materials left outside of compliant temperatures. Blood left at room temperature will clot. This renders the blood useless if it is required for research purposes, and extremely dangerous if needed for a blood transfusion. It is therefore of utmost importance to regularly check environmental and storage temperatures to ensure medication compliance and quality.
Testo's Saveris data logger solution for healthcare facilities
The Testo Saveris measurement data system was design with the modern challenges of temperature monitoring in hospitals’ medical freezers and temperature-controlled rooms in mind. Features include:
- Additional external probe sensors: while the convenience of wireless monitoring of laboratory or cold storage areas is important, it is just one part of the wider health assurance picture. The ability to access individual chillers or transport containers feed right back into quality compliance too. External sensors and probes are able to be linked to Testos Saveris. This allows all temperature and humidity data to be stored in one place.
- Continuous environmental condition monitoring: If a refrigerator breaks down, it only takes a matter of minutes to spoil a batch of blood samples. The Testo Saveris offers facility managers and laboratory technicians peace of mind by offering ongoing storage conditions through an alarm system connected to a mobile device or tablet. If a temperature does happen to reach outside of a defined set of parameters, the relevant people are notified and are able to take action to prevent any damage taking place.
- Automated report management: Testo’s Saveris automates temperature data logging and collation. This reduces the need for manual reporting, and it’s all done from one device!