Temperature-sensitive Medications in Interfacility Transport: The Ice Pack Myth

Abstract

IntroductionCritical Care Transport teams use various strategies to maintain temperature sensitive drugs and equipment at optimal temperature. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of current passive refrigeration of temperature sensitive transport medications/equipment. MethodsInitially, we performed a retrospective review of transport durations. Subsequently, an experimental paradigm was created using a temperature probe inside of the transport cooler packs utilizing various configurations and initial starting temperatures with high and low “in range” temperature margins of 8°C (max) and 2°C (min). ResultsThe mean round-trip transport time was 2.5 hours and over 15% of transports last longer than 4 hours. At a starting temperature of −3.9°C, the cooler and ice pack maintained “in range” temperatures for 3 hours. When the ice pack starting temperature was −12.9°C, high temperatures excursions weren’t experienced until 6 hours 55 minutes, but initially low excursions fell below for up to 3 hours. iSTAT® cartridges remained within range between 1-4 hours at cooler and ice pack starting temperature of −3.9°C. ConclusionThe current system of passive refrigeration does not appear to be sufficient for safely storing medications or point-of-care testing equipment for our transport services. This might reveal a flaw in the existing practices around medication refrigeration in transport.