Children have rigorous vaccine requirements, with the CDC showing eight important doses by the age of 2. Keeping track of vaccine environmental conditions can quickly overwhelm your team, leading to an increased risk of errors.
This is where digital data loggers come into play, ensuring safety and efficiency throughout your entire process. The CDC imposes regulations that distributors of vaccines and other medicine must follow.
In this article, we’ll outline the basics of digital data loggers, important features, and the CDC’s requirements when implementing digital data loggers.
What is a Digital Data Logger?
A digital data logger, known as DDL, is an electronic device that constantly monitors the environmental factors of medicine using an external probe. The most common environmental factor monitored is temperature. Most vaccines must be kept at a certain temperature to safeguard their effectiveness.
If the vaccines are outside of the acceptable temperature range for a period of time, the batch is unusable. Digital data loggers track all details surrounding environmental conditions, including changes in temperature within the environment.
Digital data loggers also upload all information to software, allowing healthcare professionals to evaluate and analyze trends in environmental conditions. This can help you pinpoint equipment malfunctions to safeguard vaccines.
What are the CDC Requirements for Digital Data Loggers?
The CDC requires that vaccines have the proper temperature monitoring controls in place, as vaccines could mean life or death. In addition, there must be a detailed log of temperature history. Tracking vaccine temperature and historical data isn’t efficient with manual processes and procedures.
You could easily misplace your temperature log, or your team member could write down an inaccurate reading. Each of these factors might result in the need to dispose of the entire batch of vaccines, putting your patients at risk and costing your practice more money.
This is why the CDC supports the use of digital data loggers. These devices harvest important information, like current temperatures, and keep a detailed ledger of past readings, complying with the CDC’s regulations.
Additionally, the CDC may request details surrounding the amount of time the vaccine has been outside of the normal temperature range. With manual procedures or standard thermometers, you wouldn’t be able to find this information.
What are the Features of Digital Data Loggers?
Digital data loggers come with numerous features that your business can leverage. Here are a few of the most important features:
Data Storage
Many states require vaccine distributors to keep vaccine environmental condition data on file for at least 3 years. Utilizing paper recordkeeping can lead to lost information. To comply with these state requirements, the CDC recommends that businesses utilize a digital data logger for each vaccine storage unit.
Downloadable Data
DDLs compile information into applications, which can easily be downloaded for internal or external review. In addition, you can customize your digital data logger’s frequency. Maybe you want data uploaded every hour or want access to real-time data. DDLs can meet different requests that your business needs, giving you the ability to customize processes.
Buffered Temperature Probe
Buffered temperature probes are one of the most efficient methods of measuring vaccine temperatures. In fact, buffered temperature probes often exceed thermometers in accuracy. Most DDLs utilize buffered temperature probes as part of environmental monitoring. Wireless probes give you flexibility in where they are placed without having to compromise sensitive environments.
Alerts
Real-time alerts are critical with sensitive vaccines. You might only have a 10-minute window to restore the environmental conditions before the product is unusable. Many DDLs have built-in alarms that sound when the battery is low, or the temperature is out of range. This promptly alerts your team when there are issues with the control environment.
Summary
Does your practice or distribution center currently use digital data loggers? If not, now might be the right time to overhaul your current processes with this state-of-the-art technology. After all, digital data loggers have been proven to reduce the amount of product losses companies experience.
At Qualified Controls, we offer wireless real-time environmental monitoring sensors that connect with our secure cloud software, and provide voice calls, text messages, and push app notifications to notify your team. This helps you protect your vaccines through continuous environmental condition monitoring.
