This article will cover the importance of monitoring your medicine’s temperatures, especially for your upcoming RCVS Practice Standards Scheme (PSS) or Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) assessment.

Why is temperature monitoring for medicines so important? 

To keep your medicines working effectively, you’ll need to store them at the right temperature as described in their specific product characteristics (SPC). Monitoring the temperature of all the medicines you store on-site can be a big challenge especially as they can be stored away in different rooms and draws across the practice.

What’s required for the RCVS Practice Standards Scheme (PSS)?

For those participating in the scheme, it’s a core requirement to monitor the ambient temperature of your medicines and quickly respond if it deviates outside of the reference range. It’s also important to record and store the temperatures you monitor for auditing purposes. Prior to the assessment day, your inspector will ask you to upload your standard operating procedure (SOP) for monitoring and responding to temperature changes. On the day of the assessment, your inspector will also want to see all the areas you store medicines and check you have the right systems in place.

What solutions are out there to help?

There are various solutions to help you manage and record the ambient temperature of your medicines. These include min-max thermometers, data loggers, and cloud-based temperature monitoring. Some of the key characteristics of these are summarised below. 

1. Min-max thermometers

• The manual approach for temperature monitoring involves daily readings from a specific thermometer which stores the minimum and maximum temperature within a given period. Staff record this down once daily e.g. in a paper book or laminated table and then reset the device
• Pros: It’s low cost and quick to set up
• Cons: dependency on staff, difficulty in analysing data, and environmental impact of paper and laminating

2. Data loggers

• These USB stick devices are used to monitor temperatures in specific areas, store data on themselves, and notify using an alarm or flashing light if it deviates from a set range 
• Pros: They save staff time and provide a rich amount of data for analysis
• Cons: Upfront investment cost in the technology and dependency on staff to collect and download the data weekly

3. Cloud-based monitoring

• Small devices are placed in different locations and sync temperature data via the internet to a cloud-based storage system, triggering notifications such as an email or push notification if temperatures deviate from a set range
• Pros: A further saving on staff time and often built-in analytics for the stored data
• Cons: The highest upfront investment costs and reliance on a reliable internet connection

When it comes to considering which system to go with, it’s not only important to consider the direct staffing cost if manual checks are involved but also the opportunity cost, which is the potential of using them elsewhere.

5 Top tips for monitoring and recording medicine temperature 

1. Take care of storing medicines near heat sources like radiators, printers, and lab equipment
2. Place fridge thermometers inside a Tupperware to limit the impact of opening and closing the fridge door
3. Assigning temperature monitoring responsibility to a specific shift or role can improve compliance
4. Centralise the storage of medicines when possible to minimise the effort of monitoring and recording
5. Don’t forget to monitor the meds stored in the controlled drugs cabinet, reception, and crash kit!

In summary, monitoring medicine’s temperatures correctly at your practices is key to essential to keep them working effectively. There are different solutions out there that can help you depending on the level of investment you want to make. Keep in mind that investing upfront in a more automated solution will improve compliance and free your team up to do more rewarding work.

VetQI can provide expert support in choosing the right system for a practice’s needs, especially when it comes to upcoming PSS assessments. Contact VetQI for more information