Picture of a syringe being used to draw up a vaccine from a vial. Blog Post: Tips from a Consultant Pharmacist - How to Properly Store Vaccines
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Tips from a Consultant Pharmacist: How to Properly Store Vaccines

Vaccines have greatly reduced the burden of infectious diseases and they play a critical role in managing public health today.  The benefits of vaccination extend far beyond prevention of specific diseases in individuals to the protection of entire societies.  For vaccines to achieve their best results, however, they must be handled, stored and administered correctly.  Do you know the best way to store vaccines? Is your healthcare facility following best practices for vaccine storage?

What steps should you take to ensure patient safety?  As a consultant pharmacist, the following are some tips from my years of experience for ensuring your facility is following vaccine storage best practices:

CDC Recommended Storage

  • Carefully select and use the appropriate vaccine storage units to store vaccines.
  • Have a properly calibrated thermometer or temperature recording device inside each storage compartment.  We recommend a traceable thermometer.
  • Evaluate your cold chain procedures to ensure vaccine storage and handling guidelines are being followed. Store vaccines at the ideal temperature of 40° F.
  • Upon delivery, inspect vaccines; monitor refrigerator and freezer temperatures to ensure cold chain storage was maintained all along.
  • Rotate vaccine stock so that the oldest vaccines are used first.
  • Should errors in vaccine storage and administration occur, take corrective action immediately to prevent them from happening again — and notify public health authorities.

CDC Vaccine Storage Do’s

  • Do make sure the refrigerator door is closed!
  • Do leave 2 to 3 inches between vaccine containers and refrigerator walls.
  • Do post “Do Not Unplug” signs on the refrigerator and near the electrical outlet.

CDC Vaccine Storage Don’ts:

  • Don’t use a dormitory-style refrigerator.
  • Don’t use the top shelf for vaccine storage.
  • Don’t allow food or beverages in the refrigerator.
  • Don’t  store vaccines on door shelves or on the floor of the refrigerator.

How a consultant pharmacist can help with vaccine storage:

  1. Guidance:  On an ongoing basis, your consultant pharmacist can provide the latest guidance from nationally recognized organizations such as the CDC, as well as the expectations of certification and accreditation bodies such as the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC), The American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities (AAAASF) and The Joint Commission (TJC)  . This can save you a tremendous amount of legwork, keep your patients and staff safe, and help you to achieve full regulatory compliance.
  2. Audits:  As part of their routine visits, your consultant pharmacist should audit your storage conditions, processes, and policies.  This reinforces ongoing compliance, points out areas of weakness or non-compliance and allows another opportunity for education.
  3. Education:  As a consultant pharmacist, my approach is to use every visit to each facility as an additional opportunity for staff questions and education.  Education doesn’t, and shouldn’t, just happen in a classroom.  Education should happen each time your consultant pharmacist visits, and it should be seamless: it can range from answering questions to a one-on-one with a particular staff member.  The consultant pharmacist visit is a great opportunity for everyone to learn…including the consultant pharmacist.  Sometimes a facility has been creative and developed a system that others can benefit from.  By serving a large and diverse number of facilities, I often learn creative processes that I can then share with others.
  4. Resources:  As part of the ongoing support your consultant pharmacist should provide are many industry resources that allow your staff and facility to be self-sufficient at times when the pharmacist is not in the facility.  These items include websites and other reference documents you can use to help develop, monitor and enforce your policies and procedures.The following are some of my favorites:

CDC Vaccine Storage and Handling for Healthcare Providers

CDC Recommendations and Guidelines

Vaccines change from year to year (as do administration schedules) and with these changes, sometimes storage requirements need to be changed.  Keeping up with all of the changes can turn into a full-time job and most facilities struggle to stay compliant.

By working with a consultant pharmacist, you can develop a comprehensive plan (for example, services we offer here at OctariusRX).  Whether you just need a free consultation to assess your needs, or a consultant pharmacist to help ensure patient safety and regulatory compliance, we can help you.  Please don’t hesitate to contact us and get the ball rolling.

The Consultant Pharmacists at OctariusRx provide guidance on safe medication management, survey readiness and cost savings to ambulatory healthcare facilities/surgery centers, senior care facilities and pharmacies  We also help individual patients optimize their medications to improve their quality of life and save money. Contact us for assistance.

 

Any health, medical or drug information on the Web Site is for informational purposes only. This information is not intended to be used, and you should not use it, as a substitute for obtaining professional healthcare advice, diagnosis or treatment. You should always seek the advice of your doctor, a pharmacist or other qualified healthcare provider for professional healthcare advice, diagnosis or treatment for any medical condition.