Bushloe Surgery
Looking to further improve both time management and safety and security for vaccines and other temperature-sensitive products, we researched the options for automating our fridge monitoring procedures. RemoteM provided us with a solution which matched our requirements exactly. Implementing RemoteM has successfully freed up valuable nurse time, giving us an accurate, 24/7 overview of the performance of our fridges. In addition, having the system in place has already saved us a significant amount of money by alerting us to an out-of-hours fridge failure which would otherwise have resulted in the loss of an entire batch of vaccines.- Sara Poultney, Assistant Practice Manager, Bushloe Surgery
About Bushloe Surgery
Bushloe Surgery is a primary care provider serving over 13,000 patients and offering high quality, patient-centred healthcare at Two Steeples Medical Centre in Wigston, Leicestershire. The Surgery is a teaching practice, supporting third and fifth year medical students, GP registrars and nursing students, and also puts the focus on training, support and access to further qualifications for all staff.
Increasing efficiency and accuracy with automated fridge monitoring
Bushloe Surgery operates from a modern building, shared with another practice, housing a total of eight fridges, some of which are owned by Bushloe and some by the facility itself, as well as a Primary Care Network fridge used on occasion by Bushloe. Prior to installation of the RemoteM monitoring system, fridge temperatures were checked regularly using a manual datalogger procedure.
It was a time-consuming process involving clinical staff whose time and expertise were better deployed elsewhere. In addition, we were experiencing issues with the dataloggers in terms of inaccuracies, operational failures and lost data. We realised we needed to implement a professional, automated process to free up nursing staff and ensure we had comprehensive, accurate cold chain records.- Sara Poultney, Assistant Practice Manager, Bushloe
Implementing automated monitoring
The team at Bushloe Surgery decided to take up the RemoteM option of a free trial to see how the system fitted in with their requirements. “It was easy to install, the costs were acceptable – particularly when we factored in the savings in nurse time - and the options RemoteM gave us for a complete 24/7 overview of the condition of all the fridges in the building were exactly what we wanted,” said Sara.
In addition, implementation across all the fridges was quick and simple. RemoteM operates as a standalone system and does not require any level of integration into existing IT provision, which is always a critical issue for NHS applications- Sara Poultney, Assistant Practice Manager, Bushloe
So what does Sara identify as the main advantages of automated fridge monitoring processes? “We have a complete overview of our cold chain, 24/7,” said Sara. “This gives us total transparency at all times, and we can access the dashboard wherever we are to check fridge status and download reports where required. We have saved money on nurse time, and can see data in real time, as well as having different logins for example for lead nurses and healthcare assistants. In short, RemoteM has improved and simplified our processes; I would recommend the system for other GP practices experiencing challenges with accurate and reliable fridge monitoring.”
RemoteM in action
The RemoteM system has also proved its value by alerting Sara to an out of hours fridge failure. “We have received a large delivery of RSV vaccines in preparation for the current NHS roll-out,” she explained. “Late Friday evening, I started receiving SMS alerts from RemoteM, indicating the fridge was outside the pre-set temperature range limits. As a result, we were able to get staff into the practice to move the vaccines to another fridge. We didn’t lose any, and could see clearly on the dashboard exactly how long the temperature had fluctuated for, which meant we were confident the vaccines for safe and effective for use.”
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