CAS DataLoggers recently provided the automated temperature monitoring solution for Euclid Hospital, a member of the Cleveland Clinic Health System featuring one of the region's leading rehabilitation and orthopedic centers.
The hospital’s basement-floor morgue had recently installed a Thermo Scientific Model LMR 4-EO End-Opening Refrigerator capable of storing up to 4 cadavers, intended for holding them for transitional purposes while awaiting release papers en route to the medical examiner or a funeral home. In line with strict healthcare regulations, personnel needed a temperature monitoring device to help maintain the cooler at 2-8°C (35-46°F), and a remote solution was preferred so staff didn’t have to travel down to the basement every time they had to take a reading. Additionally there were 3 adjacent medical storage units for storing chemical reagents which also required precise monitoring.
Cooler monitoring data logger.
The hospital also required alarming for all these units to verify full compliance with CAP (College of American Pathologists) regulations in the morgue’s lab. Personnel needed this system fully in place by the time they started using the body cooler, so the installation had to be quick and easy. Although this was a straightforward application, it was difficult to find a cost-effective monitoring system with these features, so the hospital came to CAS DataLoggers to find an economical solution.
CAS DataLoggers provided the hospital with a 4-point temperature monitoring system consisting of 4 Accsense Ethernet Wired Temperature Dataloggers. The hardwired pods were ideal since Power over Ethernet was available and there were multiple LAN drops in the basement which powered the dataloggers. This setup enabled staff to run a thermocouple probe through the top of the cooler to its internal slab housing the evaporator, and it was more convenient to go hardwire than to use wireless devices. Among the 3 medical units were a deep freezer, another freezer kept at -30°C (-22°F), and 2 medical refrigerators, which were all monitored by placing a probe in each.
Users then set alarms for whenever the temperature of any unit went out of specification, which soon came in handy when the morgue experienced a power outage. During that event an alarm instantly triggered and sent an email to the lab supervisor’s work and personal emails, giving him instant notification via smartphone so he could then immediately notify personnel to restore power to the basement.
The system’s datalogging capability also ensured compliance with CAP regulations for the morgue’s laboratory by continually monitoring and alarming the body cooler and medical storage unit temperatures.
Euclid Hospital’s temperature monitoring application was fully functional following installation of the Accsense Ethernet data loggers. The Accsense system was ideal for this small monitoring project since alternative systems were much pricier, not counting the costs of maintaining the servers which competitors required. The data loggers gave Euclid Hospital remote monitoring and alarming capability at 4 points, high-accuracy readings, and proof of their regulatory compliance. Additionally, the system’s trouble-free installation and operation quickly got the system in place so the body cooler could be used on schedule.
Lab Team Leader Matthew Herasuta explained why Euclid Hospital chose Accsense for the project: “Accsense is very convenient for our remote monitoring needs; in case anything goes wrong in the basement, I’ve always got the alarm on my phone. All the alarming capabilities are great--we don’t have to constantly go down to the basement to check on the cooler anymore.”