Quick Action Preserves COVID Vaccine Doses

This is a note of recognition for Donna Shelor, PharmD, Emily Rogers CPhT, and Rob Chrisley from CNRV’s inpatient pharmacy and facilities teams.  Very early on the morning of January 6th, the new ultra-low temperature freezer at CNRV, holding over 500 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, stopped working.  The vaccine’s shelf life would be only 5 days if it didn’t stay below -60ºC and Donna and Emily worked to ensure that the vaccine was kept cold.  They learned there was another ultra-low freezer in the hospital and quickly transferred the vials in some dry ice left in a packing container.  They carefully noted the time of each event that transpired and the temperature at which the vaccines were contained. This was reviewed with Pfizer and the vaccine’s expiration date did not need to be shortened due to their quick actions.  Rob was paged at 1:00 AM and a short time later found that the freezer’s control board had fried.  He was able to temporarily salvage the board with his expertise and a soldering iron, and the freezer got back to its set-point quickly.  A replacement board arrived the next day and Rob went the extra mile to install it on his day off.  Commitment, collaboration, and curiosity were called upon to give this problem a good outcome.