VFC (Vaccines for Children) provider Montefiore selected DicksonOne to shift away from a time-consuming manual temperature monitoring process, increasing reliability and yielding thousands in savings.
The Situation
VFC is a CDC program that oversees $4 billion dollars in vaccine distribution per year by over 44,000 U.S. clinics, providing no-cost vaccines to children who otherwise would not be able to afford them. Understandably, given the importance of ensuring vaccine safety, purity, and effectiveness, the VFC program has strict regulations when it comes to storage and handling. This includes continuous temperature monitoring and excursion response.
Montefiore Health System, one such provider, was selected to participate in a NYC pilot program that would replace a cumbersome and error-prone system of thermometers and twice-daily temperature checks with new continuous temperature monitoring.
The Solution
As part of the program, Montefiore was given the choice between DicksonOne and two other products, but after a test-run of all three in Montefiore’s refrigeration systems, DicksonOne emerged as the clear choice.
DicksonOne is a cloud-based monitoring solution that provides 24/7 monitoring and real-time alerts, all while continuously uploading your data from each data logger to a single application. Additionally, DicksonOne is built for VFC compliance – the included reports automatically provide the correct format required by VFC. Role-based alarm policies were important to Montefiore, as they would be able to customize excursions by location and control who receives those alerts.
Aside from the out-of-the-box features, two other aspects stood out to Montefiore. First, DicksonOne’s Replaceable Sensors™ remove the need to send out data loggers for calibration, eliminating any downtime. Second, the user-friendliness of the system allowed for easy implementation at multiple locations and quick onboarding of all staff. Dickson also offered web-based training to help acclimate the nursing staff to new procedures and promote a uniform use of the system.
With the selection of DicksonOne, Montefiore seamlessly implemented data loggers to monitor all vaccine and pharmaceutical refrigerators across 25+ locations.
The Results
- Montefiore achieved compliance with new VFC requirements that were introduced in 2018, allowing them to continue safely providing vaccines to children.
- Automated email reports and text, email, or phone call notifications when excursions occur, all while keeping continuous temperature records of all refrigerators that are internet accessible 24/7.
- No vaccine losses have occurred due to improper environmental conditions. amounting to thousands of dollars in annual savings.
- Montefiore was able to expand to a school-based partnership system – ensuring that partner schools will always have compliant and safe vaccines on site.
- DicksonOne’s scalability will enable Montefiore to continue to quickly add new hospital monitoring points and school locations, and ultimately help more children.
Need help with temperature monitoring or or other compliance issues? Connect with one of Dickson’s experts today.
