Another query about blood fridges and monitoring them:

We have chart recorders on all of our fridges because of the British Standard BS4376 part 1 for blood fridges. We are getting a new temperature monitoring system and I was wondering if this means that we can get rid of the chart recorders? (we didn't use them when I worked at NBS) as I think they are prone to errors (putting them on wrongly, pens and battery running out etc). However we don't have a copy of the standard to see exactly what it says.

Can anyone give me further information about this standard? Has anyone else stopped using chart recorders?

Thanks,

Nicki

Hi Nikki,

Paper chart recorders are a pain even though we still make them @ABB mainly for the third world exports I hasten to say, we now have the worlds first videographic unit, which means as long as you have an ethernet connection nearby it takes away all the agro out of changing paper, worrying about pen nib ink level etc and can be viewed at you workstation desktop in chart recorder format.

You can even print out in said format to satisfy your QA dept requirements, best thing about this product is it's windows based so there is no need for fancy monitoring system software costs, and will fit directley into the same size hole as 95% of the current chart recorders in use, if you can get in touch I will send yoiu the associated flyers to review.

Cheers.

Hi Nikki,

We have experience in monitoring some of the biggest facilities within the UK. Please feel free to contact me if you would like further information. You can also visit http://www.sednascientific.com

I hope this helps

Nikki,

Yes you can do away with charts. If you do keep them they must be calibrated against the electronic monitoring system. You must have a back-up in case of monitoring failure though and some find charts (which will still need to be kept up to date).

Regards

Eoin

I am sorry to say I think Eoin is completly wrong, I would expect any one with common sense would discuss this with there QA people, as you need electronic and paper copies, so don't do away with your chart recorder paper or electronic.

Cheers.

ABB Walker.

WELL aabbwalker

WE ARE ACCREDITED TO ISO15189

and yes you do have to keep paper records - this is of the recordings of the electronic temperature monitoring system and you will have to have the two calibrated together if you are using both - it is no use one reading one thing and the other something else - you will get caned by the regulators - and I think the question was about using two systems not about record keeping.

So I am sorry to disagree with you, but I am not wrong, but you are entitled to your view.

I would have thought you could do away with paper copies as long as your calibrations were as Eoin stated.You would also need to ensure (as for all IT systems) that the electronic data was kept securely and retrievable in the event of system failure ( so a back up copy possibly?).

One of the many reasons for getting these temp. monitoring systems is to make the process more manageable and to cut down on staff time changing chart records weekly. I also agree it would be a good idea to keep some charts to place back if the monitoring system fails.

Today, the good monitoring systems have plenty of build-in fale-safes.

If you are able to convince your auditors, I do not see it necessary to keep your chart-writers

on-line.

If the history data is stored on a good server, this server will backup the data, so no data is ever lost.

From the monitoring system, you can generate anything you like. Graphs etc. etc. , so for that reason

you do not need your old writers.

The newer monitoring systems will even keep recording in case the actual monitoring system is down.

For certain wireless systems, each single probe will buffer the data for up to 7 days when disconnected from the rest of the system.

For wired systems, they will collect and store the data in groups, so you can never loose the active data on more then 16/32 sensors if the system goes down.

As soon as the system is back on-line, it will flush the data into the system, and you can check if your equipment has been running within the limits.

To cover your data, you could use some electronic loggers, for the time certain sensors are off-line.

The only problem you face, when an electronic system fails, is, that it will not dial-out in case there is an

alarm, but when you have somebody check the fridges, until the system is back on line, you can use the data from the electronic loggers for the duration of the "black-out" to satisfy the auditors.

M_A