Why Healthcare Facilities Cannot Run Without Medical Freezers and Refrigerators

Medical refrigerators and freezers are essential equipment for labs and medical facilities. The indispensability is due to a slew of benefits.

Healthcare facilities and laboratories cannot escape investing in a cold storage unit to maintain the potency of their drugs and vaccines. 

But, they cannot use a household refrigerator. It cannot maintain the necessary temperature range, among other shortcomings. What they need is a medical freezer or refrigerator, which can maintain the right temperature environment to keep the stored items effectively, without damages.

For healthcare facility and laboratory owners, there is a thing to note. Try to save money by purchasing a household refrigerator. You should be prepared to incur significant monetary losses as such a cold storage unit will damage your items, and you will have to replace them. 

Technically speaking, medical freezers and refrigerators are meant for protecting temperature-sensitive biological products and vaccines. Despite such cold storage units requiring higher investment than the domestic units, they entail better returns on investment.

If you are a medical facility or laboratory owner, you should know the benefits of buying a medical-grade cold storage unit. Here are the benefits:

Maintains a Reliable Cold-Chain 

Medical refrigerators and freezers can maintain a reliable cold chain. Such units have temperature-controlled storage areas that protect vaccines, blood transfusions, and biological material apart from extending the shelf-life of biological materials.

Improper storage temperatures cause significant monetary losses to healthcare facilities every year. According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization, medical facilities discard 35 percent of vaccines annually due to improper refrigeration.  

Delicate and temperature-sensitive items can lose their potency due to the wrong storage conditions, such as overexposure to heat or cold. For example, liquid vaccines can lose their effectiveness if they get exposed to temperatures below 0 degrees C. Any vaccine, once it gets damaged, needs to be disposed of. It cannot regain potency. 

If you administer damaged vaccines to people by mistake, they need revaccination. And such occurrences can erode the trust in your facility among people, hampering its reputation. 

Medical facilities should use medical refrigerators or freezers to preserve their potency. Such cold storage units can maintain a consistent temperature range. Due to this, these units can store vaccines effectively.

There are other aspects of such units that make them ideal for vaccine storage. They have compressors with which these units can reach target temperatures faster. Moreover, their doors seal tighter.

Accurate Temperature Monitoring and Alarm Systems

Accurate temperature monitoring is another benefit of medical-grade refrigerators and freezers. Most of such units come with external Temperature Monitoring Devices (TMD). Such units protect the stored items from temperature excursions, which are temperature fluctuations from the prescribed range.

According to the CDC, temperature excursions are inappropriate storage conditions that call for immediate action. Temperature excursion incidents can harm temperature-sensitive items and cause vaccines to lose their potency.  TMDs allows you to monitor the internal temperature without having to open the refrigerator door. The devices also help you maintain an accurate history of vaccine temperatures, which is crucial to protect vaccine temperatures.

According to the CDC's recommendations, you should use TMDs with digital data loggers (DDL), which provide accurate storage unit temperature information, such as how long the unit has operated outside of the prescribed temperature ranges.

If you use thermometers, you can record only the maximum and minimum temperatures of the unit. 

Ensure that the TMDs you install have a current and valid Certificate of Calibration Testing. DDLs measure vaccine temperatures with the help of buffered temperature probes, which are more accurate than standard thermometers. You should refrain from using a TMD that does not have a valid Certificate of Calibration Testing.

The CDC prohibits using alcohol or mercury-based thermometers, bimetal stems, infrared, and charts for recording the internal temperature of cold storage units. 

Many TMDs also come with alarm systems to send out alerts when the internal temperatures go outside their prescribed ranges. 

Your staff should use backup monitors to confirm internal temperatures. Suppose there is a need for changing the internal temperature. In that case, you need to make the change carefully towards warmer or colder settings slowly and ensure you do not go outside the recommended temperature ranges. Subsequently, allow the system to stabilize for 30 minutes, then recheck the readings to make sure it is alright.

Set refrigerator or freezer thermostats at the midpoint temperature to reduce the possibility of a temperature excursion.

The typical temperature ranges of medical-grade cold storages are: 

• Refrigerators--2 to 5 degrees C
• Medical freezers---50 to -15 degrees C
• Ultra-low temperature freezers---86 to -40 degrees C

Promote Better Air Flow

Medical-grade cold storage units have better airflow as they have powerful, fan-forced air circulation systems with air-cooling vents to push air. Their internal shelving systems, with wire shelves with perforated ventilation holes, also help circulate air efficiently and maintain consistent temperatures.

They also have drawers to promote consistent air circulation. 

The CDC recommends that medical-grade cold storage units should have the following systems:

• They should have wire shelves to minimize internal temperature variance to +/-2 degrees C.
• An audible alarm to notify the staff when the door remains open or temperature excursions occur.

You should ensure that your cold storage unit has good air circulation outside of the unit. Therefore, place them in a well-ventilated room with enough spaces between the floor, ceilings, and walls.

Also, ensure that you do not block the compartment covers of refrigeration units. 

Protection During Power Failures

Medical-grade cold storage units can protect the stored items during power failures even if your healthcare facility does not have a generator. Most of such units have battery backups to keep them running during a power failure, preventing temperature excursions. 

The CDC recommends healthcare facility owners test backup battery power sources quarterly and service them annually. 

They should not fall behind checking the manufacturer's guidelines for periodic maintenance schedules and testing procedures.