About Haven Vets

Originally established as a farm animal veterinary practice in the late 1940s, Haven Veterinary Practice took on a new name and identity in 1991 and changed to focus solely on companion animals in 2006. It was one of the earliest registered Veterinary Animal Hospitals in the country and is registered as a Veterinary Nurse Training Centre.

Today, Haven Veterinary Practice is a Tier II accredited practice registered with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons' Practice Standards Scheme, operating a main hospital and consulting facility in Clacton-on-Sea and a branch surgery in Walton-on-the-Naze.

Maintaining the integrity of veterinary medications

Practice Manager Clare Frazer first heard about the RemoteM fridge monitoring system from one of the vets at the practice. "I was immediately interested because we had just had an unfortunate incident where a fridge had been switched off accidentally, resulting in the loss of expensive vaccines and other medications," Clare explained. "It wasn't just the inconvenience and cost involved, it was also the reaction of our insurance company who were unwilling to continue cover on fridge contents."

Prior to installing the RemoteM system, the practice relied on dataloggers and a daily manual checking process, noting and recording average readings. Clare's concerns lay with the reliability of this system and the potential for fridge temperatures to fluctuate between readings.

Automating the process and adding out of temperature alerts

Clare took a close look at temperature monitoring systems on the market, and selected RemoteM. "The RemoteM system was very easy to understand, to install and to set up," she explained. "I worked with the company to establish the parameters for our service requirements in terms of how out of temperature alerts would be communicated to our team - this process was quick and straightforward. Then RemoteM was up and running in the fridges at both of our locations."

The practice has already received a number of useful alerts. "We had alerts just a few nights ago from a fridge located in a store room, but they were under temperature alerts and it was a very cold night!" Clare said. "In general, RemoteM is alerting us to fridges accidentally left ajar and warming up, which we can solve very quickly either immediately or by a phone call to our other location. It's also serving as a valuable indication on how well our fridges are working; we have changed a plug socket as a result of information via RemoteM."

Key benefits of RemoteM

Now, Clare is confident in RemoteM and happy to let the system operate independently in the background; she doesn't even think about it unless she gets an alert and needs to investigate. Clare hasn't yet used the online facility to generate and download reports on fridge records for inspection purposes, but says she's looking forward to how easy this will be in preparation for the Practice's next RCVS inspection.

The practice's insurers have also taken on board the installation of an automated fridge monitoring system and adjusted their cover accordingly. "The key benefits for us at Haven Veterinary Practice are the convenience of automation, reliable prevention of accidental stock losses, reduction of waste and saving both time and money," Clare confirmed.