You’ve considered your equipment options and weighed the true costs of a vaccine emergency plan. Now it’s time to prepare for how you’ll protect your vaccines and other cold chain medical supplies.
Solutions are at the heart of any strong vaccine emergency preparedness plan. When every minute counts, you need to be ready to stabilize temperatures or move materials. Here are seven types of emergencies that your plan should cover:
1. Threats With Advance Warning
When you anticipate that an outage is coming, moving vaccines, setting up backup power, or using a phase-change material (PCM) vaccine refrigerator and freezer to store vaccines are all viable solutions to consider.
However, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- PCM refrigerators will typically stay in temperature range for up to six days during a power failure, while PCM freezers generally stay in temperature range for approximately four to five days.
- Calculating backup battery power runtime is tricky and impacted by many factors, so be aware that an estimated runtime can have a fairly wide margin of error (and factor in that the runtime will diminish over time as the batteries age).
- If you’re moving vaccines, make sure that they are safe when in transit. This means monitoring with a digital data logger (DDL) and using a carrier that will maintain vaccine temperatures in range for a period of time that takes into account any potential glitches in the plan, such as traffic or having to implement a plan B if the designated site is no longer available.
2. Threats Without Advance Warning
If you’re located in an area prone to earthquakes, tornadoes, violent storms, or other threats that appear without advance warning, transporting vaccines to another location may not always be an option. Chances are that moving vaccines will be too dangerous in those circumstances; however, it may be possible after the threat has passed.
Consider equipment that will protect the vaccines from power outages for extended periods of time in case vaccines cannot be moved. Options include PCM refrigerators and freezers, which will keep vaccines in temperature range for several days during outages, or an automatic generator or battery backup system that starts automatically when needed.
3. Brownouts
It’s helpful to have vaccine fridges and freezers that keep their temperature in range if your location experiences frequent outages or brownouts. PCM vaccine storage units that maintain their temperature range for days without power are an alternative to purchasing and maintaining a backup power system.
4. Planned Power Outages
Even if these outages occur after work hours, it’s crucial to ensure that measures are in place to prevent spoiled vaccines. All three solutions are viable for a planned outage as long as the length of the outage has been factored in.
5. Unexpected Routine Outages
If the lights go out unexpectedly, it usually means that you won’t know for how long power will be lost. PCM vaccine refrigerators and freezers, battery backup power, and generators are all viable options in this situation. Vaccines can also be moved to a designated emergency storage site; however, that can be a more disruptive and time-consuming solution.
6. Post-Storm Outages
Long power outages that often accompany large storms are best handled by a solution that will provide days of protection. Moving the vaccines in advance, using PCM refrigerators and freezers, or having an automatic generator installed on-site are all options. If there is access after the storm, a standard generator may also work.
7. High Risk of Physical Damage
If fires or floods threaten your vaccine storage facility, your likely best option is to transport vaccines to a safer location. A qualified container and pack-out, a standard cooler with ice packs, or a portable refrigerator or freezer can be used for emergency transport.
It’s important to plan ahead to move critical materials to a new location. Check out this infographic to learn how to simplify the move with lab-qualified vaccine and medical travel coolers (also called vaccine carriers).
Start Preparing Now to Execute Your Vaccine Emergency Plan
Developing a good plan takes time, so don’t wait to get started. By understanding the potential risks to the cold chain and knowing what solutions are available, you’ll have the best chance of protecting your vaccines from temperature excursions or losses regardless of the circumstances.
