NHS Professionals Choose Tinytag Data Loggers for Vaccine Temperature Monitoring

NHS Foundation Trust Professionals are choosing Tinytag data loggers to monitor vaccine fridges and cool boxes to help verify that vaccines are stored and transported within the specified temperature range.

Maintaining recommended temperatures is vital for ensuring the efficacy of vaccines, many of which are highly sensitive to heat and cold and can lose potency due to incorrect storage. Tinytag data loggers are utilised to record data to help verify that vaccines have been stored correctly and help meet SEQOHS accreditation standards for cold chain and vaccine storage.

Vaccine Fridges and Cool Boxes Temperature Monitored with Tinytag Data Loggers

The 5 Boroughs NHS Foundation Trust Occupational Health Department is a mental health trust covering Warrington, Wigan, Leigh, St Helens and Knowsley in the United Kingdom. The Trust has chosen to use Tinytag temperature data loggers to monitor departmental vaccine fridges, and cool boxes used to transport vaccines taken off site.

Temperature monitoring is vital to ensure that vaccines remain potent and patients are protected. Many vaccines cannot remain at room temperature for long before they have to be discarded. This can lead to vaccine wastage with significant cost implications.

The Trust is SEQOHS (Safe, Effective, Quality Occupational Health Service) accredited, and using the loggers helps it to meet the recommendations within the accreditation standards for cold chain and vaccine storage.

Nurse Team Leader Diane Williams chose Tinytags due to their flexibility and is very satisfied with the results. She comments:

“They are small and easily portable, and can be set to record temperatures at any chosen interval and this can be changed as required. They can have alarm limits set, the batteries are long-lived and the software is easy to use.”

There are two Tinytag View 2 data loggers in use, one in each vaccine fridge. They are used as a back-up on a daily basis, together with the temperature gauges already in position in each fridge. The fridges are inspected daily and the temperatures are recorded. In the event of any discrepancy, the data logger’s information is downloaded. The Tinytags record the temperature every 10 minutes, so it is possible to see precisely when and for how long the fridge or other type of storage has been out of range.

The Tinytag View 2 data logger

Removing the guesswork regarding fluctuations in temperature and timescales

In order to ensure all patients receive effective jabs, it may be necessary to remove and destroy any vaccines that have been stored at the incorrect temperature, whether that is above or below the recommended range. With the help of Tinytag, the necessity to do this can be safely determined so there is no wastage of vaccines.

Monitoring also provides key information indicating for how long the fridge door has been left open during a stock check. This helps ensure that the pharmacy and nursing staff do not allow the door to be opened for extended periods and can demonstrate why. Tinytag temperature data loggers remove any guesswork regarding fluctuations in temperature and timescales.

The Tinytags are also used in cool boxes for outreach clinics during flu vaccinations, and for external clinics where other vaccines are used (e.g. Hepatitis B vaccines). If the logger shows the temperature of the cool box to be above the upper recommended limit of 8°C then the vaccines are discarded.

To find out more about Tinytag data loggers for vaccine temperature monitoring, please fill out the short contact form or contact: sales@tinytag.info.