Healthcare Discussion Post: Cold Chain Breach Analysis and Strategies

This discussion post examines a cold chain breach scenario in a laboratory setting, where the vaccine fridge temperature exceeded the recommended range. The student identifies discrepancies between the case and best practices, highlighting the lack of regular monitoring and the unauthorized use of vaccines by a physician. The post analyzes the critical need for immediate action, including reporting the breach and isolating the affected vaccines. It also discusses the importance of educating laboratory professionals on cold chain management to prevent future incidents. The student references guidelines from the Victorian government and other sources to support their analysis and proposes strategies for ensuring compliance with established protocols, emphasizing the potential risks to patient health and the significance of adhering to vaccine storage guidelines.

Running head: DISCUSSION POST
DISCUSSION POST (COLD CHAIN BREACHING0
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1DISCUSSION POST
As mentioned in the guideline provided by the Victoria health care department, the
cold chain system is developed and implemented by the government so that while
transferring or storing the vaccines, the temperature could be maintained within 2°C to 8°C.
This is considered as the optimum temperature while transferring or storing the vaccines so
that while using these for patient administration, the viability of these vaccines could be
maintained (Health.vic.gov.au 2019). However, if this guideline is violated, this also provides
a regulation in which the breaching of this recommended temperature is mentioned. In this
discussion post, discussion about one such critical condition has been mentioned so that the
breaching related to the condition could be identified (Health.vic.gov.au 2019). Further, the
discrepancy between the best practice and case scenario would be mentioned in this scenario.
Finally, strategies to make the process comply with the guidelines would be mentioned in this
discussion post.
In this case scenario, it was mentioned that in a lab that operates Monday to Friday, I
observed the vaccine fridge is at its maximum temperature which is 10°C hence, it is evident
that these vaccines are in 10°C for last two days and hence the cold chain breaching has
occurred in this situation. Therefore, this is the discrepancy between the best practice and the
case scenario that the vaccine fridge temperature is not monitored regularly, due to which
such critical condition occurred. Another discrepancy that occurred in the care process, when
one general physician took two of the vaccines from that fridge for patient administration,
without any inspection or bleaching reporting (Najjar et al. 2019). Hence, in such condition, it
is important that the professionals working in the lab are educated about the cold chain
breaching and through the process, they would be informed about the process so that they
could report this condition properly for detailed investigation.

2DISCUSSION POST
Response 1
This discussion post outlines the critical situation of cold chain breaching effectively
and identified all the adverse aspects due to which the data breaching occurred. This
discussion identified the important and rapid actions that need to be taken to reduce or
eliminate the risk of adverse health conditions. The post effectively mentions the timeframe
which has been recommended by the protocol of the Victorian Government to understand the
breaching of cold chain. However, this post did not mention about the strategies to overcome
the negligence of the professionals in the laboratory. However, reporting of the situation,
marking if the vaccines for usage, proper signage for the cold fridge containing the vaccines
are the aspects that have chosen as the rapid actions. Hence, as per Daly, Evans and Holmes-
Brown (2019), these are the strategies that holds the capacity to reduce the rate of adverse
health complication effectively. Therefore, this post highlighted every aspect of cold chian
breaching effectively.
Response 2
While responding upon the scenario 1, this discussion post also highlights issues such
as the elevated temperature of the vaccine fridge and the general physician who took four
vaccines from that fridge for patient administration. However, this post did not mention the
timeframe that has been provided by Health.vic.gov.au (2019) that indicates the data
breaching and the reason we are considering this situation as the cold chian breaching. This
discussion post effectively identifies the steps that are recommended by the department of
Health of Victoria, Australia and mentions that the laboratory should wait for the response of
department of health. However, to educate its professionals about cold chain breaching, the
importance of literacy about this topic were not identified in this post, that would prevent this

3DISCUSSION POST
incident in future practice. Hence, these are the aspects which could be identified after
thorough analysis of this discussion post.
References
Daly, E., Evans, N. and Holmes-Brown, S., 2019. The effects of current cold chain
management equipment in controlling the temperature of thermolabile medications and
temperature sensitive diagnostics, dressings and fluids in a routine australian defence force
operating/exercise environment. Journal of Military and Veterans Health, 27(1), p.23.
Health.vic.gov.au (2019). Cold chain management. [online] Www2.health.vic.gov.au.
Available at: https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/public-health/immunisation/cold-chain-
management [Accessed 26 Aug. 2019].
Health.vic.gov.au (2019). National vaccine storage guidelines Strive for 5. [online]
Www2.health.vic.gov.au. Available at:
https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/national-vaccine-storage-guidelines-strive-
for-5 [Accessed 27 Aug. 2019].
Najjar, Z., Quinn, E., Anderson, T., Sheppeard, V. and Gupta, L., 2019. Surveillance methods
to detect the impact of a significant cold chain breach. Vaccine