Reduction of Medicine Disposal

Maintenance personnel at the University Medical Center in Groningen, Netherlands, a regional hospital with 1500 beds, and over 10.000 personnel, were looking for a solution connected to the issues surrounding vaccine quality. Due to the constant opening and closing of the refrigeration units and without having a correctly installed measurement system, it was extremely hard to guarantee the necessary vaccine quality compliance. This can be a serious matter of health, safety, and confidence for the vaccinated. Additionally, a refrigerator full of vaccines can be worth well over 20.000 EUR and vaccines can be ruined if the exact temperature is not maintained while in storage.

Challenges

Vaccine quality in question
Unreliable refrigeration temperature measurements
Manual inspections are time-consuming and costly

Solution

The solution was built according to the requirements set by the maintenance personnel at University Medical Center Groningen: the measurement should be accurate to 0.5°C, the temperature measurement range from -2°C to +16°C detection and alerting of open doors of refrigeration units. First, 10 pilot refrigeration units, were installed and with staff approval, further deployment of 300 sensors followed. The installment is easy, Senstick Microclimate sensors are used together with 2 indoor TTN gateways. Datastream is integrated with AWS IoT, where thresholds for alerting via email and SMS were set, reporting on the health and utilization of the refrigerators. Responsible personnel received alerts in the case of temperature drops greater than 5°C combined with the detection of opening doors. Also, digests on temperature swings and trends of utilization are issued on a weekly basis for maintenance inspections.

Benefits