How to stop expired vaccines from costing us money and lives

The vaccine rollout is well on its way to being a success. But, we are still paying for avoidable mistakes along the way.

You may not think that vaccine wastage can negatively affect patients at first. But for every vaccine vial that goes to waste, that’s 6 vaccine doses that are now delayed. 

A batch of vaccine vials can have tens or hundreds of vaccines. And so in the race to normality and global safety, we cannot afford these mistakes. 

Our Founder and President, Joan Melendez, shared her advice on how to solve this in her latest LinkedIn Pulse article:

Thousands of vaccines are going to waste -- that we know of. The real number could be beyond that. Do we even know if all the vaccines acquired in 2020 have been used? 

The culprit behind this challenge? Inefficient healthcare data management. Or as one journalist writes, “shoddy record-keeping”.

Healthcare data isn’t just about patient health records (although this is a crucial part). This covers everything from FDA guidance and data to manufacturer information, to healthcare facilities’ records. 

Say one of the vaccine manufacturers realizes a certain batch of vaccines is unsafe. They put out a recall notice. At the same time, a hospital is administering that exact batch. 

Or a batch of safe vaccines are delivered -- but without checking the storage guidelines and tracking vaccine temperature, vaccines become ineffective.

And if every requirement has been met, the vaccine is administered, the patient goes home -- is there a risk? Without 100% accurate and up-to-date patient health records, yes. A patient can be given a vaccine they’re allergic to. They may not be getting their second dose within the recommended time -- or the opposite, too many vaccine doses.

We’ve seen that manual processes are not helpful in tracking and reporting expired vaccine supplies. So… why are healthcare facilities doing that? Mostly, out of habit. But an automated solution exists.

By using existing UDI barcode scanning technology that instantly transmits actionable data to essential medical databases, the horror stories cited above can become a thing of the past.

The tools are there for healthcare facilities and government to use. Every vaccine vial saved equals 3 fully vaccinated people. Now we just need to make it happen.

Is your healthcare facility, or manufacturer, ready to stop vaccine waste? Contact us to learn how -- or read more about our vaccine management system, UDIVitals.