Authors (including presenting author) :
Cheung HH(1),Hui LF(1),Chan WSC(1), Wong SYH(2),Chui CMW(2),Tang KS(1),Lee SL(1)
Affiliation :
(1)Quality & Safety Department, HKWC; (2)Department of Pharmacy, QMH
Introduction :
To ensure patient safety, all temperature sensitive’s medicines (TSM) must be transported, stored, and handled according to the manufacturer’s guidelines to ensure both the quality and efficacy of the products. TSM is required to be stored between 2-8°C. Therefore, a secure cold chain management (CCM) is a necessity.
Objectives :
To fulfil the cold chain requirement of TSM during the inpatient and outpatient care and inter/intra-hospital transportation process and storage at wards
Methodology :
The HKWC Guidelines on Cold Chain Management of Refrigerated Medicines and Safe use of Pharmaceutical Refrigerators was released in 2016 to standardize the practice as heterogeneity in practice in our cluster was identified in HKWC refrigerator survey 2015. 1] CCM during inter/intra-hospital transfer 1. TSM are put inside a coloured plastic bag for staff alertness. Instructions on the storage conditions are highlighted on the drug label. 2. Insulated storage bag with coolant are used for intra/inter-hospital transport 3. Designated staff are responsible for delivery of TSM from pharmacy to wards 2] Storage at all clinical areas 1. Pharmaceutical refrigerators were installed with inbuilt temperature monitoring devices (TMD) and alarm system for out-range condition. 2. The temperature is regularly checked and recorded 3. All electric plugs was protected with cover and labelled with “雪櫃電掣, 不可關閉電源” or “Do not unplug” to prevent accidental switch-off. 4. An alert, standard label of “2-8 °C” is posted at the front of the refrigerator 5. Additional TMD with data loggers were place in refrigerators serving at high-risk area, for correlation with event time 6. Workflow on Incident management of temperature excursions was launched 7. Standard signage for the cold chain breach: “Do not use” for the quarantined medicines and “Out of order” for out-of-ranged pharmaceutical refrigerator were used. For out-patient service To alert patients who need self-storage of TSM at home or bringing it to GOPC for drug administration, a pamphlet on “Steps for Transporting and Storing Refrigerated Medication” has been given
Result & Outcome :
Zero incident related to accidental switch-off or unplugging of the power was observed. The number of patient has received TSM stored/transported at improper temperature was markedly reduce after implementation of the CCM. The HKWC CCM has shown its role in safe delivery of TSM to patients.
