CAS DataLoggers Chosen by Alaska Clinics to Monitor Vaccines

Providing Accsense Wireless Temperature Monitoring and Alarm Systems

Alaska’s Department of Health and Social Services recently chose CAS DataLoggers and its advanced Accsense systems to provide the temperature monitoring solution for the extensive Alaska Immunization Program which had distributed vaccines to Alaskans for over three decades, all at no cost to providers. The program’s 26 remote public health centers handled both storage and dispensation of critical medicines and vaccines as part of an ongoing universal vaccine distribution program for childhood and adolescent vaccine-preventable disease control and prevention. The organization needed to maintain its vaccines at a temperature constant of 35°F to 46°F (2°C to 8°C). Most of the centers contained at least one medical refrigerator and freezer, with some sites requiring additional monitoring. The organization’s requirements for such a system were demanding in view of these extremely sensitive supplies, so a prospective solution had to be highly accurate, securely encrypted in line with HIPAA privacy law, and easy to use.

The Department discovered Accsense and CAS DataLoggers while they were searching for a hassle-free automated monitoring solution. The remote clinics soon purchased and installed 30 Accsense A2-05 Ethernet Wired Temperature Measurement Pods, connected to medical refrigerators and freezers to provide convenient monitoring for every unit in the clinics. Management picked Accsense systems over every other monitoring system on the market because their high accuracy and turn-key operation entirely replaced the need for expensive training sessions or IT department involvement—staff just plugged the pods in and let them run. Constant worries over regulatory concerns raised by manual temperature checking were immediately made obsolete. Advanced alarm features enabled email, text and even phone messages whenever temperatures went out of specification. Users could also login using any Web browser to retrieve reports and graphs or modify the system's configuration from anywhere Internet connection was available.

Each monitor included a power adapter and Ethernet cables, supporting power over Ethernet for a lower cost and easier maintenance compared to traditional wiring, and personnel soon became knowledgeable in every aspect of the system’s operation. These cost-effective temperature pods entirely replaced the clinics' old alarm systems, increasing safety measures and decreasing staff response times while automatically sending their data to the secure servers at Accsense, which encrypted all the data. In case of a power failure or network connection loss, these wireless pods could keep running for 6 hours on their internal lithium batteries, during which the data loggers would continue to buffer data. CAS also provided value-added tech support to the program as it got up and running with its new monitoring and alarming technology.

This installation now handles continual monitoring of all vaccines in inventory and will continue to safeguard them in future, functioning as a good model for state of the art medical monitoring. CAS helped the Department stay informed throughout their selection process and also provided free technical support to help personnel get the best use out of their new system.

CAS DataLoggers has also provided monitoring solutions for other demanding clients including the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, New York Hospital Queens, Stanford Hospital and Clinics, the Smithsonian Institute, and the US Navy Medical Center, among many others.

More information can be found on the A2-05 product page.