Monitoring and documenting the temperature of sensitive goods

Having the ability to keep track of the temperature storage of sensitive goods is crucial in healthcare. Everything from incubators to medical refrigeration units must be kept within the strictest boundaries.

The testo Saveris temperature monitoring system is capable of keeping such measurements in check and is currently being put to use by Eastern Health Pathology in several locations across the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Tony O’Neill, the associate director and core laboratory manager of Eastern Health, explained that the organisation’s expansion has seen the testo system become more valuable than ever.

“We’re the second largest metropolitan health network within Victoria,” he said. “One of our acute care hospitals - Box Hill Hospital - has just opened up a brand new facility and it’s close to double the size of what it was, so our workload and requirements are on the increase.”

Eastern Health Pathology has three separate laboratories, each of which has devices such as freezers, waterbaths and incubators which must be carefully monitored by accurate thermometers. O’Neill said the company owns “a variety of devices that have to be kept in expected temperature ranges - from -80°C freezers all the way up to incubators in the mid-40°C range”.

“We have a regulatory requirement to make sure that these devices are maintained at expected temperatures,” O’Neill continued. “Any variation from this may affect patient testing and diagnosis. For example, incubating microbiology plates, storage of blood products and storage of frozen samples must all be done and documented appropriately.

“To talk specifically about blood storage device, there are incredibly strict regulations upon the temperature tolerances of blood product refrigerators and freezers. We’re storing thousands of dollars’ worth of donated blood and plasma products and if the temperatures are not maintained at appropriate levels, the products have to be discarded.

“Not only do we need appropriate control of our temperature-sensitive devices - we also have to have very good record keeping of temperature data that can be reproduced when required.”

O’Neill said the testo system has ironed out previously inefficient processes at the company. The system can consistently log data - storing up to 40,000 measurement values - and is highly accurate.

“Before testo, we had a series of individual local temperature monitoring systems on each applicable device and we had to go round and actually manually check and record that those devices were operating at the right temperature,” he said. “That manual checking, depending on the device, may have only been on a 24-hour basis.

“[Using the testo Saveris system] means that all of our devices are being monitored in a universal, continuous manner. It’s exactly the same process no matter what the device is - if there is an alarm, we know exactly what device it is. Our response to the alarm can be simply recorded, which makes it easier to manage and track issues, if any. We also have the ability to monitor devices located in areas which may not be staffed 24 hours a day.”

To keep up with new technology, testo has just launched a cloud-based Wi-Fi temperature monitoring system called testo Saveris 2. Although this system is very similar to its big brother testo Saveris, Saveris 2 is primarily designed for small to medium applications.