One of the most significant concerns of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries is proper storage of medications, test samples and vaccines. Pharmaceutical and other products need to be kept within a specific range of temperature and moisture levels. Outside of these conditions, medications may not maintain their integrity, with active ingredients degrading over time. Pharmacies can preserve their products’ integrity through appropriate storage techniques. Learn how to manage pharmacy room temperature with the aid of temperature sensors below.
Temperature Control and Pharmaceutical Drug Storage
Most medications, test samples and vaccines need to be stored in a dry, dark and cool place. High temperatures can chemically alter medications and vaccinations, while high moisture can cause medications to degrade. Most of these items are stored in different types of conditions:
Cool storage: Cool storage conditions are defined as 8 to 15 degrees Celsius or 46 to 59 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cold storage: Cold storage is considered 2 to 8 degrees Celsius or 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit. These conditions are optimal for inhibiting chemical reactions and microbial growth. Cold storage is often required for highly degradable drugs and vitamins.
Fridge storage: Fridge storage is another common pharmaceutical storage requirement and is defined as -4 to 2 degrees Celsius or 25 to 36 degrees Fahrenheit.
Many manufacturers recommend discarding medications, etc. if they are stored outside their recommended temperature range for five hours or more. Exposure to higher temperatures can result in the active chemicals in medications, test samples and vaccines changing at a molecular level. Sometimes, this can result in the quality and/or potency be drastically degraded, making it less potent or even changing its effects. Some examples of these known to be affected by temperatures include injectable diabetes treatments, Covid-19 vaccines, eye-drop medications, inhaled drugs, birth control and various antibiotics. Degradation of these can be life-altering or life-threatening, so they must be stored properly.
Wireless Temperature and Humidity Sensors
Power outages, heatwaves and malfunctioning equipment can all result in heat exposure within a healthcare or pharmaceutical building and destroy supplies. To protect against temperature exposure, healthcare facilities can employ wireless sensors in a variety of areas.
Monitoring temperatures and conditions manually is a common method for maintaining pharmacy room temperature range. This manual recording can be inconsistent or inaccurate. It is also limited to working hours when someone is present in the pharmacy to record temperatures. As an alternative, many pharmacies have turned to automated temperature monitoring systems.
Temperature monitoring systems use wireless sensors to record environmental conditions in a space. Using a wireless network, these sensors can monitor the temperature in a pharmacy storage area, sending records to a database. Some systems can also measure humidity. The system sends automated alerts when a space’s measurements fall outside set thresholds so someone can quickly come and resolve the problem before medications are negatively affected.
Senslynx offers a range of temperature monitoring sensors that can be used in healthcare. Based on LoRaWAN wireless technology, these sensors provide wireless penetration through walls and floors and have excellent range. They can also be configured remotely. If measurements fall above or below preset thresholds, the sensors use the system to send out an alert.
SensLynx sensor options include:
Wireless Air Temperature and Humidity Sensor: This sensor uses airflow to measure temperature and humidity levels in an indoor space.
Wireless IP67 Air Temp and Humidity Sensor: This external probe sensor uses a porous stainless-steel filter to measure humidity and temperature using airflow. This sensor is rated to be used in both outdoor and industrial environments, with an IP67-rated enclosure and cable.
Wireless External Probe Temperature Sensor: This external probe temperature sensor uses an external probe for temperature measurement and is ideal for low-cost indoor applications.
Our temperature sensors are an excellent choice for the healthcare industry, with a range of options to handle practically any environment and monitoring needs. Our sensors are linked to our convenient web-based user interface, which serves as a hub where you can set up sensor configurations and alerts, monitor activity, set up users and pull reports along with other features.