Laboratories and medical facilities need to store medications and vaccines in proper conditions to preserve their potency.
If they fail to store the items in the right conditions, the items can get damaged, and such things can put patients at risk, and not only that, damaged items also will entail money out-go in replacing the damaged stock.
To preserve such items in the right ways, they call for medical refrigerators. But, these cold storage units are costly.
Due to their higher costs, many medical facilities often prefer purchasing standard refrigerators and freezers to save money.
The practice seems to be tempting during the current scenario. Medical facilities have to expand their cold storage capacities to cater to the growing demand for medications and vaccines.
But, the practice is not good at all. If you try to save money by investing in a standard refrigerator, you might incur more costs in the long run.
Domestic refrigerators do not come with the necessary features to store delicate and temperature-sensitive items in the right conditions, leading to disastrous results. But, medical refrigerators can ensure the proper storage, despite costing more.
Suppose you are looking to invest in a new refrigerator and are considering buying a domestic refrigerator to curtail money out-go. Why not look at the fact that purchasing a medical refrigerator instead can save you money.
Medical or laboratory refrigerators come with the following features:
Better Temperature Control
The fundamental reason medical facility or laboratory owners need to invest in a medical refrigerator is to ensure the unit’s proper temperature control.
Proper temperature control is required to preserve the potency of delicate and temperature-sensitive medical items, such as some medications and vaccines.
With a household refrigerator, you will not get the accurate temperature control feature. Domestic refrigerators and freezers cannot maintain precise high temperatures, and the temperatures within these units can fluctuate throughout the day.
Temperature fluctuations can elicit drastic consequences. Medical facilities will see severe consequences if the temperature within their cold storage units fluctuates as most vaccines require a stable temperature environment to ensure their safety and effectiveness.
When it comes to storing vaccines, you need to maintain a very tight temperature environment, and the temperature can deviate by a few degrees without risking the vaccines’ effectiveness.
With improper refrigeration systems, substantial item losses can result. You should discard the damaged vaccines and other items, which will entail money out-go in replacing them.
Such losses occur worldwide. The Centres for Disease Control (CDC) has estimated a loss of $20 million annually for healthcare facilities worldwide due to improper refrigeration, which also can result in costly lawsuits if you compromise patient safety.
With a medical refrigerator, you can put all your worries to rest. Such refrigerators have safety features to ensure the safe storage of medicines and vaccines.
Compared to domestic refrigerators, medical variants seal more tightly to maintain a steady temperature. Moreover, medical refrigerators can maintain more consistent temperature ranges than the household variants, enabling you to keep your items’ viability over the long run, saving you money.
Superior Temperature Monitoring
Medical refrigerators can maintain the cold-chain by providing superior temperature monitoring features, which are not available in domestic refrigerators. In this way, medical refrigerators can save you money.
With superior temperature monitoring systems, you can ensure that your medications and vaccines are at a safe temperature and stay effective by keeping a log of temperature readings inside your refrigerator.
Domestic refrigerators pose problems in monitoring the internal temperature. It entails opening up the fridge and checking a thermometer inside.
Such temperature monitoring can be inaccurate and reduces the temperature stability each time you open the door. Also, a commercial refrigeration checkup is very important to maintain your refrigeration system and ren it better.
Medical refrigerators come with features to allow you to monitor the temperature in your unit accurately. Most such refrigerators bear an external Temperature Monitoring Device (TMD), with which you can see the internal temperature reading from outside the unit without having to open the door.
Advanced medical refrigerator units come with a digital data logger (DDL), which stores temperature information.
DDL allows you to see the temperature inside the unit over some time. It also enables you to get the idea about for how long the temperature was outside the prescribed range if such a situation occurs.
The feature allows you to ensure that your items are safe at the proper temperature.
Alarm Systems
An alarm system is one of the most beneficial features of a medical refrigerator. It alerts the staff when the temperature inside the unit goes out of the range.
The alarm system provides an early warning system when the internal temperature varies from the recommended range.
When it sends out an alert signal, your staff can take corrective action.
When your refrigerator malfunctions or the door remains open accidentally, the alarm can alert your staff about the eventualities so that they can initiate corrective measures.
The recent spate of affairs related to the storage of the COVID19 vaccine amplifies the need for a medical refrigerator with an alarm system.
Recently, many medical facilities worldwide had to rush to use the vaccines before they went bad due to temperature fluctuations.
If there were proper temperature monitoring and alarm systems in the refrigerators, such mishaps could not have occured.
During the current pandemic, it is critical for medical facilities to invest in good quality medical refrigerators to preserve the potency of the COVID19 vaccines.
Improved Security
Medical refrigerators come with higher security features. The items you store inside the fridge are valuable, and often thieves target those items.
One of the downsides of using a domestic refrigerator in a medical facility is that there will be improper security features.
If thieves break the unit and steal the items, you will suffer a severe financial loss.
But a medical refrigerator helps you to prevent such eventuality. It will bear a solid lock to prevent unauthorized personnel from accessing its contents.
Therefore, investment in a medical refrigerator entails monetary value in the long run.
Conclusion
It makes sense for medical and laboratory facility owners to invest in a laboratory refrigerator. Despite purchasing a medical refrigerator entails a larger investment than a domestic refrigerator, the extra expense will help you save money in the long run.
