Part of the TruMed service is a robust set of alerts and related notifications designed to keep administrators informed about temperature, inventory, system, and integration status. Some are more time urgent than others. This guide is to help you understand the different types of alerts you might receive, what they mean, if action is required, and how to engage with TruMed Support if needed.
Alert Categories and Subscriptions
Our alerts fall into four categories:
- Temperature
- Inventory
- System
- Integration
Users can subscribe to individual alerts within each category and may choose whether to receive specific alerts via text, email, or both. The user will see subscribed alerts only for the Sites that they have access to.
Pictured below is the Alerts section of the user profile screen in the MyAccuSite portal.
When you click on one of the four categories, you will be presented with a list of all individual alert types within that selected category. Within this menu, users can opt-in or opt-out to each alert type and may also choose how they would like to be notified whether that be text, email, or both.
Clinical Best Practices on Alert Subscriptions
Below are a few tips and tricks based on our experience working with customers.
- Text messages for urgent alerts. Some time sensitive alerts may occur during off hours when users are not actively monitoring their email inbox. For this reason, we recommend that users opt-in to text alerts for urgent alerts.
- Right number of people subscribed. To ensure that urgent alerts are attended to as fast as possible, we highly advise that multiple users opt-in to text alerts. Having all users opt-in to text alerts can be overwhelming and disruptive. Having too few users subscribed to urgent alerts can be costly.
Alerts and Engaging with TruMed Support
Some situations result in working with Support.
Alert Type | Clinic | TruMed |
Temperature Alerts | AccuVax: Clinics should have staff coverage subscribed to receive text alert notifications. Upon receipt, check the portal to see if the condition has resolved, and call TruMed Support to discuss further. | We have Support coverage for emergency issues 24x7.
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AccuShelf: AccuShelf’s automated temperature alerts are your monitoring service. Clinics should have staff coverage subscribed to receive text alert notifications.
Upon receipt, check the portal to see if the condition has resolved, though you may need to go to the clinic and assess the status of your fridge/freezer. | We are happy to answer questions about how the temperature monitoring is functioning. Because the fridges and freezers are ones you own, we are unable to help diagnose issues with that equipment. | |
System | AccuVax Power: You’ll receive a notification when the unit detects that the wall socket is not supplying power. AccuVax’s batteries provide 8+ hours of backup.
You should assess whether you believe there is actually an outage, whether it will be long, and call support if you have any concerns. For a very long outage, you may need to invoke emergency procedures and empty the AccuVax into backup storage. More info is in the next section of this document. | Most outages are short/transitory. If the power to the unit is off for more than an hour, Support will begin monitoring, and will try to research whether the local power company is tracking an outage/ETA.
For an outage that appears to be long, Support will begin contacting designated emergency contacts. You can also call us 24x7 for power issues.
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AccuShelf TM Power: The AccuShelf model with temperature monitoring includes a small UPS backup battery. This provides the AccuShelf with enough backup power to send out alerts so that you know there may be an outage.
You should assess whether you believe there is actually an outage, whether it will be long, and send staff to the clinic to take action on temperature controlled medications if necessary. | We are happy to answer questions about how the backup batteries and notifications work, and diagnose if you believe they are not working correctly.
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Network | The MyAccuSite portal sends an alert if an AccuVax or AccuShelf has not connected with the portal in more than an hour. This is a time-urgent situation, since lack of connection means that the unit at your clinic will not be able to send alert notifications to you or TruMed Support.
For AccuVax and AccuShelf TM this means that, until the situation is resolved, we won’t be able to detect potential excursions or power outages.
There is a security Online Role in the Portal called IT Manager. They are often good to have subscribe to network alerts. | Review the help article about this topic: Help Diagnosing Network Issues Contact Support if additional help is needed. |
Inventory | These alerts are generally not as time urgent. The key one to have someone responsible for inventory subscribe to is the Daily Summary (email), which provides information on low/expiring vaccines & other medications. | Contact Support if you have questions |
Integration | These alerts are also primarily for IT personnel. | Contact Support if you have questions |
Emptying the AccuVax in an Emergency
Some power outages are long enough where emptying vaccines into alternative storage is necessary. In such a case, TruMed Support is available to provide advice on the decision to empty & support the activity as it happens.
Here are a few things you'll need to understand should such a situation arise:
- It can take 2-2.5 hours to empty an AccuVax unit that is at or near its storage capacity (less if the unit is partially full). Assuming 8 hour battery life, that means that you'll want to begin physically emptying the unit no more than 5-5.5 hours into a long outage (to provide some margin of error for unexpected circumstances). The time and distance staff needs to travel to the clinic should also factor in when to make that decision.
- Emptying the freezer first is helpful. If the battery gets low enough that the thermal system needs to be turned off, the freezer will go into excursion much more quickly than the fridge. Because the doors between the fridge and freezer have to open and close repeatedly, it's also the slowest part of the unit to empty.
- If the fridge is at normal temperatures it can stay in range for an hour or more, even if the thermal system is turned off to conserve battery. In a situation where the battery is getting low, turning thermals off reserves capacits to power the robot & empty the rest of the unit.
- In the rare event where battery runs out before emptying the unit of vaccines, it is possible to open the unit and manually remove. Your AccuVax shipped with a tool pouch hung on the rear, which can be used if this is necessary. TruMed Support will provide instructions (including a video) if staff needs to do this.