RPA is now asking hundreds of mothers with new born babies to contact them because a vaccine fridge may have been failing. This strikes me as an amazing problem for a major hospital.
For more information see the full article from the SMH. Read the article.
Low cost temperature loggers have now been available since I started this business in 2000. Back then we were selling temperature loggers for under $100 while the competition was still over $150. Since then the competition has moved down in price which means hospitals have no excuse for not monitoring fridges independently.
RPA has a vaccine fridge where the temperature sensor may have been faulty. What that means practically is that:
So if you looked at the records or at the fridge then you would have thought that everything was fine – but it wasn’t.
The solution is very simple, an independent thermometer needed to be used. That is, there needs to be a second method to record the temperature that does not involve the fridge’s sensor.
The device to do this is called a “temperature logger”. They have existed for years. We sell a dozen different types. They aren’t expensive. In fact, they start at about $50.
If RPA had a logger in place they would have had two independent devices telling them that the vaccines were good:
1. The vaccine fridge itself should have an alarm built into it to alert staff when it is too hot or cold. That’s why vaccine fridges cost more than normal fridges (plus some extra smarts)
2. The temperature logger has a list of all temperatures throughout the day (week, month, year!)
If either had indicated a problem then it could have been resolved immediately. If both said things arefine then the fridge is working.
Now, however, even just having a temperature logger is old technology. It is now possible to have a wireless logger for the same price as traditional loggers. These units will automatically transfer the temeperature to the cloud. From there it is possible to:
Latency, when it comes to temperature logging, refers to the delay between a change in temperature and when that change is detected and recorded by the logger. This delay can be due to the sensor’s design, the materials it’s placed in, or the logging interval. While it might sound like a disadvantage, latency can actually serve a useful purpose in certain environments—particularly where short-term temperature spikes are common but not harmful.
For example, in a busy commercial fridge, the temperature may briefly rise every time the door is opened. A logger with high latency won’t immediately react to these short fluctuations, helping to avoid unnecessary alarms or false data indicating a problem when there isn’t one. In these cases, a slight delay in response acts like a filter, focusing attention on real issues—such as prolonged exposure to unsafe temperatures—while ignoring the everyday ups and downs that don’t affect product quality or safety.
Depending on the type of logger you have, connecting your logger to your PC means either:
First Generation LogTags use a separate Reader (sometimes called a dock) for configuration and for downloading recorded data.
The Second Generation loggers only require a USB port or cable. Apart from saving the cost of the Reader, this makes them much better suited for shipping, because the recipient doesn’t need a LogTag Reader to download a report about the shipment’s journey.
