Is your refrigeration keeping your vaccines safe?

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends pharmacy grade/purpose-built stand- alone units for storage of vaccines to meet requirements for proper handing and storage through the Cold Chain.

The Cold Chain is a temperature-controlled environment used to maintain and distribute vaccines in optimal condition. Refrigeration and freezer vaccine storage at the provider facility is a crucial component of this process. If the Cold Chain is not properly maintained, potency will be lost, and vaccines become useless.

If you are a Vaccines for Children (VFC) provider or if you have other vaccines purchased with public funds, state immunization programs have additional, more stringent, requirements for storage of vaccines.

Failure to store and handle vaccines properly can reduce vaccine potency resulting in patients not being fully protected against vaccine-preventable disease.

Storage errors can also result in significant financial loss. Even a small supply of vaccine in your facility represents thousands of dollars. The costs associated with loss due to improper temperature controlled storage, replacement vaccines, and resources necessary to conduct a recall of patients can be significant. Patients lose confidence in their providers when revaccination is necessary because the vaccine they received may have been compromised due to exposure to inappropriate temperatures.

A National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) study found that stand-alone pharmaceutical units maintain required temperatures better than household/commercial combination units. Household combination refrigerator/freezer units are less capable of simultaneously maintaining proper storage temperatures in refrigerator and freezer compartments. These types of units have cold spots and temperature fluctuations in the refrigerator portion of the unit. Risk of freeze-damage to refrigerated vaccines is increased because air from the freezer is circulated for cooling into the refrigerator. Freezer compartments in these units have demonstrated that they are not capable of maintaining correct temperatures for frozen vaccines.

Builders’ Sales and Service sells and services a wide range of pharmacy grade/purpose built stand alone refrigeration and freezer units to insure your facility maintains the proper Cold Chain for your vaccines. From smaller work-top or under the counter units to industrial three door refrigerators and freezers, Builders’ Sales and Service has the products you need to keep your vaccines safe at prices you will appreciate.

Call or email us today for additional information.