Virginia Mason Medical Center is an award-winning 336-bed hospital in Seattle, Washington. When The Joint Commission and the U.S. Department of Health told them that they were not adequately monitoring their refrigerators and that they needed to fix it, they started looking for an automated system.
The hospital had also lost a sizeable amount of medications, which occurred when the refrigerators lost power over the course of three years.
Virginia Mason decided to implement AssureTemp™ by EoScene, a web-based application featuring 24/7 temperature data collection, multilevel notification via page, text and email, and extensive documentation for a complete audit trail. Since the implementation, the hospital has not lost any medications in refrigerators that are monitored by AssureTemp.
AssureTemp costs Virginia Mason significantly less as a web-based vs. entire system, uses their existing IT infrastructure, minimally impacts IT resources and supports their temperature sensors. It also generates automatic alerts when the refrigerators require immediate attention due to overlooked tasks or exceeded temperature thresholds.
Installation was simple because Virginia Mason’s IT team already had experience deploying solutions with their existing IT infrastructure. Usability has also been high considering the system is easy to use and the engineers were able to quickly learn how to use it during their regular morning meetings.
The constant temperature monitoring provided by AssureTemp has enabled Virginia Mason to identify the refrigeration units they need to replace and generate the necessary documentation. When The Joint Commission and Department of Health came in and saw AssureTemp, they did not even ask for details—they already knew that the hospital would comply with regulations.
EoScene and AssureTemp help pharmacists, safety and life safety officers, and compliance officers everywhere advance temperature monitoring and comply with regulations. To learn more, visit www.eoscene.com.
