Development of Vaccine Delivery Methodof Hospitals inNakhonnayok Province

Abstract

Vaccine transportation from hospitals to health facilities in Nakhonnayok province was often exposed to temperature outside the recommended range of 2-8 ^oC. This might affect the potency of vaccines. This research aims to develop a Vaccine Delivery Standard Operating Practice (SOP) of hospitals in Nakhonnayok. Action research was conducted in four districts (Muang, Ongkharak, Baan-na, and Pakplee) between January 2013 and April 2014 (16 months).Planning, acting, observing and reflecting of this study were done in order to develop an appropriate SOP.  Descriptive statistic was use for analysis. Results showed that, according to the Vaccine Delivery SOP, 518 out of 669 (77.43%) were between 2 and 8 ^oC throughout the shipments. Only 4.33% of them has, at least, one record point below 2 ^oC and none of them exposed to sub-zero temperatures. Temperature above 8 ^oC were found on 18.24%. The lowest and highest temperature reached were 0.7 ^oC and 13.6 ^oC respectively. There were equipment needed to be used as follows; a foam box (30x37x35cm.), a temperature monitoring equipment (data logger model TRED 30-7R), future board, and ice packs. Uses of the numbers and sizes of ice packs varied in each hospital. Volume of ice packs used varied from 3,123 cm³ to 5,200cm³ and this was able to keep the appropriate temperature in the box for 5 hours. It can be concluded that following the SOP instruction can help improve the temperature range of vaccine transport during 2-8 ^oC.Other hospitals can adopt the SOP for vaccine transport and revise it to fit their context.