Learn about Primex' recommended procedures to be followed during an outage that impacts temperature monitoring.
This procedure includes the following:
You can also download a PDF version. Be sure to also download the additional PDF Resources.
An outage may be the result of an event causing serious disruption or degradation of a system or facility infrastructure. Commonly this type is sudden or unforeseen event requires immediate action to mitigate the outage impact. An outage may be the result of a system or equipment failure or degradation of services, power outages, severe weather conditions, or natural disasters.
If an outage has prevented access to OneVue or has affected sensor network connectivity to OneVue, please know that a sensor:
Continuously monitors its readings and operating state.
Provides visual and audible (if enabled) status indicators.
-
Stores up to 4096 local readings in its local memory.
If a sensor's network connection to OneVue is affected during the outage, when its network connection is restored all local readings are transmitted to OneVue.
If a sensor experiences a power loss, it will also retain its local readings.
The following procedures should be instituted immediately during an outage - to ensure temperature conditions are locally monitored at each sensor and readings and corrective actions are manually recorded.
Failure to complete these procedures may result in:
Risk of dispensing compromised contents stored in temperature monitored units.
Disposal and waste of content stored in temperature monitored units.
Non-compliant temperature records.
Clear, accurate, and timely communication ensures that staff is aware of the outage and procedures to be followed. It's also important to keep staff updated as updates are released.
During a OneVue outage or service degradation, Primex will notify your organization. An email notification is sent to your OneVue admins and an announcement is published to the OneVue Dashboard.
During any type of outage, we recommend contacting Primex Technical Support. Our team can provide assistance and answers to questions you may have. It's recommended that Primex has a single point of contact or a subset of contacts to communicate updates or other action items.
If access to OneVue is available during the outage, view the OneVue Dashboard to identify the Monitored Assets currently in an Alarm state. If the outage is affecting access to OneVue or other degradation of services, it's best to assume that all Monitored Assets/Sensors are impacted by the outage.
For each Monitored Asset currently in an Alarm state:
Immediately take action locally at its assigned Sensor to resolve the alarm condition.
From OneVue, review the date/time stamp of its last reading. In some cases, the last reading may have been received hours ago and you will need to visit the sensor to view its current reading shown on its local display.
Also during an outage, it's recommend to continuously monitor the OneVue Dashboard. If OneVue or the facility's network is affected by the outage, it can take up to 16 hours before a Monitored Asset/Sensor is set to an Alarm state due to missed check-ins. During each sensor check-in, its logged readings and current status is sent to OneVue.
If staff receive alerts and access to OneVue is available during an outage, follow the standard alert/alarm response procedures - including acknowledging alerts and documenting corrective actions from Alert Resolutions.
If there is no access to OneVue or the outage is preventing alert email, text, or phone communications, manually record alarm conditions and actions taken for each asset that has regulatory requirements. For assets where records are not critical, Primex advises to move contents to a smaller set of refrigerators that can be closely monitored.
Monitor and respond to each sensor's local display, including its LED status indicators, audio alarm, and local display indicators. In addition, it's important that staff know when to use the sensor's two service buttons. During a power outage event, it's critical to verify each sensor is operating on battery power.
Tip
Refer to the Primex Temperature Sensor Quick Reference Guide (PDF).
The following table provides what to monitor from a sensor's local LCD and LED status indicators and the action required.
Local display |
Indicates |
Action required |
|---|---|---|
Green LED illuminated |
Operating on AC power |
None |
Yellow LED flashing |
Indicates either: (1) No Signal (network connection issue) (2) Low Battery level (3) No Probe/Error |
Take immediate action. Refer to local display indicators and action required. |
Red LED flashing |
Reading alarm (temperature excursion) |
Take immediate action to correct alarm condition. Follow your procedures for temperature excursions. |
|
Low Battery Icon displayed (lower-left corner) |
Battery level is low (Low battery status) |
Immediately replace its batteries. Requires two Lithium 1.5 V AA batteries. |
|
No Signal displayed (lower-right corner) |
Failed to connect to network (Unresponsive status) |
If the outage is not affecting the local network or OneVue access, take immediate action to resolve the issue. If the outage is due to a network outage, do not attempt to restore its network connection or force a check-in to OneVue until after the network is restored. |
Audible alarm active |
Reading alarm (temperature excursion) |
Take immediate action to correct alarm condition. Follow your procedures for temperature excursions. To stop the audio alarm and stop the red LED from flashing, press and quickly release the sensor Silence button The alarm will resume after 15 minutes (by default) if the sensor remains in a reading alarm. |
Err |
Probe removed or collection period must be reset |
Indicates either of the following: (A) a probe is either removed from or not inserted correctly into the sensor's probe input jack, or can be caused due to the probe is not operating as expected (B) the collection period must be reset, which may result from inserting a new probe or reinserting a probe. To clear the error state and reset the Lo/Hi collection period: verify the probe is inserted into the sensor jack and then for 1 second press and hold the sensor Silence button |
Blank - no information displayed |
Sensor does not have power |
Immediately restore power. During a AC power outage, verify the sensor is operating on battery power. You may need to replace its batteries to restore power. Verify its battery power switch is in the UP position (on). |
During an outage, it's important to know why and when to use the two service buttons located on the front of the sensor.
Note
A sensor stores the highest and lowest readings in its local memory since its last collection period reset. Pressing and releasing its Silence button 
(bell icon) for 1 second resets its hi/lo reading collection period.
To avoid losing these reading values, DO NOT PRESS the Silence button during an outage without recording the hi/lo reading values, especially for for critical assets.
The silence button has two functions, to clear an audio reading alarm and to reset the Collection Period for the lowest and highest sampled temperature readings.
When a sensor is in a reading alarm state (its last reading is out of range) the sensor emits an audio alert (if enabled) and its red LED flashes.
To stop the the local alarm, press and immediately release the sensor Silence button 
. (bell icon) This clears the audio alert and stops the red LED from flashing, but does not acknowledge the alert in OneVue.
The local alarm resumes once the time period set in the sensor's Resume Audio Alert (default 15 minutes) has been reached. Audio alert settings are configured from a sensor's gateway profile.
A Temperature Sensor displays its current sampled reading and the lowest and highest sampled reading for its current collection period. A sample reading is taken every 15 seconds.
When the collection period is reset, the lowest and highest sampled readings collected are set to start at the time the reset was performed.
How to reset the collection period varies if the sensor is in or not in a reading alarm.
If the sensor is NOT in a reading alarm: for 1 second, press and hold down the Silence button (bell icon). A single beep is emitted when the reset is complete.
-
If the sensor IS in a reading alarm (audio alert and/or red LED is flashing): press and quickly release the Silence button (bell icon) to clear the alarm, and then for 1 second press and hold down the Silence button. A single beep is emitted when the reset is complete.
This clears the audio alarm and resets the collection period.
Pressing and quickly releasing the sensor check-in button 
(up arrow) initiates a check-in to OneVue. During each check-in, all logged readings are transmitted to OneVue and any pending updates are downloaded to the sensor.
When the check-in button is pressed and released, the device emits a series of audio beeps indicating its connection sequence. When a device emits the following beep sequence and displays Signal Ok, this indicates a successful check-in.
During an active check-in connection, additional pressing of the check-in button is ignored.
If a check-in fails, commonly due to the sensor cannot establish a network connection, all logged readings are stored in its non-volatile memory. If the number of failed check-ins exceeds the size of the non-volatile memory, the oldest readings are overwritten. Primex sensor devices store up to 4096 readings.
In the event reading data is compromised during an outage, it's important to manually record readings. This should also include documenting corrective actions taken during a reading excursion or other sensor operation alarm.
From each sensor's local display, manually record its current (Cur), minimum (Lo), and maximum (Hi) readings. The frequency readings are recorded should follow your organization's reading recording policy.
At minimum, the following should be recorded: (refer to manual documentation log example)
Current temperature (Cur reading displayed on local sensor display)
-
Minimum/Maximum temperature (Lo/Hi readings displayed on local sensor display).
After each manual recording of the Lo/Hi readings, it's recommended to reset the collection period.
Date
Time
Name of person checking and recording temperature
Actions taken if temperature excursion occurred or sensor operating alarm event occurred
In the event there is a loss of electronic data or the data cannot be transmitted to OneVue after the outage ends, this information can serve as documentation for compliance reporting and record-keeping requirements.
The following provides an example of data manually recorded every 2 hours during an outage.
Monitored Asset Name |
Pharmacy Refrigerator A |
Business Unit |
Pharmacy |
Normal Condition |
36° F to 46° F |
Sensor Gateway ID (Mac Address) |
00:1E:B3:8F:7E:52 |
Outage Time Period |
Started: 12/01/2020 2:00 PM Ended: 12/01/2020 10:00 PM |
Date/Time |
Logged by |
Sensor local display |
Lo reading |
Hi reading |
Current reading |
Action taken |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
12/01/2020 2:15 PM |
Bob Smith |
Low battery |
36° F |
42° F |
39° F |
Replaced batteries |
|
12/01/2020 4:15 PM |
Bob Smith |
Normal |
36° F |
42° F |
39° F |
None |
|
12/01/2020 5:38 PM |
Jane Miller |
Audio Alert, Red LED flashing |
36° F |
48° F |
48° F |
Refrigerator door was not closed - closed the door. Temperature excursion was limited to 2 minutes and contents were not at risk. Sensor returned to normal state. Reset collection period. |
|
12/01/2020 6:15 PM |
Sue Jones |
Normal |
36° F |
39° F |
39° F |
None |
|
12/01/2020 8:15 PM |
Sue Jones |
Normal |
36° F |
39° F |
39° F |
None |
|
12/01/2020 10:15 PM |
Sue Jones |
Normal |
36° F |
39° F |
39° F |
Outage ended. All systems returned to normal operation. |
After all systems are restored and the outage ends, perform a OneVue analysis to validate the temperature readings taken during the outage time period. If your have concerns of reading timing or identify discrepancies, please contact Primex Technical Support.
From the OneVue Dashboard, verify the current state of all your Monitored Assets. For any Monitored Asset/Sensor currently in an Alarm state, immediately take action to resolve the alarm condition.
This report provides the Monitored Assets in a Warning or Alarm state during the report's date range. You will need to set the report's date range to the outage time period.
Review the report data for each Monitored Asset, including the reading history and state change events.
This report provides the daily reading summary and event history for the Monitored Assets included in the report. The daily reading data includes the calculated average, minimum and maximum readings of all readings for each day, the count of readings per day, and a summary for the report time period. The event history includes alert acknowledgments and comments, logged alert resolutions, and state-change comments.
Review the report data for each Monitored Asset and validate the reading data for the outage time period.
Monitored Asset/Sensor Manual Documentation Log. Print and use when manually documenting readings and corrective actions.
Temperature Sensor Quick Reference Guide. Print and display near sensors - provides a job aid to staff.