| March 13, 2024 | Medi-Products

How to Cost Justify a Battery Backup for Vaccine Storage Protection

With the rising economic and social importance of vaccines, especially after the advent of COVID, it is commercially and medically prudent for organizations to protect their vaccine stores. After all, vaccines are currently at their most profitable financially and are steadily becoming a condition for a return to global business and social normalcy.
Considering these vaccines’ special cold storage requirements, unbroken power supply is vital, and organizations recognize this. However, decision-makers face two common problems when moving on their power backup goals: choice and cost. There are alternative options for backup power supply, and, in many cases, the varying cost requirements of these options may constrain choice.
If you’re looking closely into the option of battery backup power for vaccine storage, we’ve written this article to help. Here, we’re sharing tips on how to effectively assess battery backup power and justify its potential value to your organization compared to other backup cold storage options.

Learn your organization’s approval process

Organizations function most efficiently when every material action corresponds with the company’s core goals and objectives. That’s why a critical first step in costing battery backup for vaccine storage is asking: does this fit into management’s vision for the company? By doing this, you can meet two ends with the same action: garner support for your proposed purchase and prepare your proposal to scale internal approval processes.
Understand how battery backup power can be beneficial for your organization and how it aligns with the firm’s strategic goals. Then, communicate the business case for battery backup systems to management and why this is an investment your organization should be making.
With a clear business case, it’s easier to determine how the proposed purchase will fare within your organization’s approval process. You’ll also have a smoother job identifying the core benefits of the technology and tying these to specific requirements within your approval process.

Identify your organization’s capital purchase priorities

While you learn your organization’s approval process, also discover what projects your firm is prioritizing presently and where a battery backup system stands on that list. For instance, in a health provider, management might determine that procuring lab equipment or upgrading examination rooms is a top priority at present.
If you’re going to push through a battery backup purchase, you need to be able to establish why that purchase should take precedence. Perhaps you might accomplish this by showing there are other projects that could take the backburner for now or that do not produce comparable value in the short or long term.
The eventual outcome will likely depend on how critical vaccines are to the work your organization currently does. The more central vaccine potency is to your firm’s profitability or impact, the better the battery backup purchase will look.

Educate your people as to prospects for vaccine and medical cold storage

Help your organization understand that cold storage (and the need for stable power supply) is a prerequisite for vaccine storage today, and developments in the sector favor this reality continuing for the foreseeable future.
The emergence of mRNA technology has completely changed the face of vaccine research and production. While traditional vaccine technology takes a lot of time and patience (cultivating large quantities of a virus and weakening it or extracting vital pieces is arduous work), mRNA incredibly shortens this timeframe. Likewise, it opens up undreamed potentials in how we design and produce health products – it may well be the start of a new age of health and wellness.
However, mRNA also needs specific low-temperature ranges to retain its stability and potency. While there’s plenty of room for future iterations that are more stable and less reliant on cold storage, the currently viable technology requires specially regulated temperatures. It’s also worth noting that the critical piece of the mRNA puzzle – figuring out how to transmit mRNAs through the body safely – took thirty years to solve. No one knows how long efforts to create more stable mRNA will take before success.
Let your organization know that mRNA is the future of vaccines and healthcare, and adequately positioning to take advantage of that trend is not only prudent, it is logical.

Compare the various methods for vaccine storage during power outages

What are the options before your organization in terms of vaccine storage protection? How well do battery backup systems perform in relation to these options? Clarifying the available options and their respective pros/cons helps provide a more compelling argument for why one choice is superior. Here’s how the major options stack:
  • Ice-lined freezer: A simple ice-lined freezer is likely the cheapest and most readily-available option. However, it only makes sense for very short power outages, and considering the usual uncertainty about the duration of outages, this option may be precarious.
  • Transportation: Transportation is also a relatively cheap option. But the challenge is often maintaining required temperature conditions while on the move. Besides, important questions arise with this option: how long will the vaccines be on the road to the backup facility? Is there a guarantee of unbroken power supply at the intended location? How will back and forth transportation affect the vaccines?
  • Backup generator: Backup generators have apparent advantages as a steadier and more dependable option than the first two. However, the ongoing cost required to fuel the generator, gas supply constraints, and fluctuating prices might open up a well of issues that organizations would likely prefer to avoid.
  • Battery backup: A battery backup system produces reliable power on standby with no emissions and no refueling needs. It suffers from none of the cons of the options listed above. In addition, battery backup systems provide even greater ROI for healthcare providers such as urgent cares and outpatient surgery centers since they can power the entire facility and promote consistent healthcare.

Explain the cost of doing nothing

Organizations might wonder: is it vital to purchase a backup storage or power system? The answer is yes. Unpredictable weather patterns and an aging power grid have made US power supply delicate. A storm, hurricane, cold snap, heatwave, flooding, snowfall, or hail can wreak havoc on the grid at any time, leaving homes and businesses without electricity for hours or days.
Bad weather and poor power supply can compromise entire caches of vaccine supplies, which will likely cause severe financial losses, in addition to the lost profits and opportunities for impacts harmed by the wasted vaccine resources.
The bottom line is: your organization can ill afford to do nothing when it comes to ensuring unbroken power supply for vaccine storage. So having a plan and implementing one will be vital, and it all starts with learning what the choices are and which ones are best.

Maximize year-end purchasing opportunities or plan for next year’s budget

At this point, you’re likely past the hurdles of choice and are now discussing what the battery backup purchase will cost your organization. The good news is that there are cost-saving opportunities you might take advantage of to reduce the financial outlay for your firm.
You may consider product discounts or year-end purchasing opportunities where sales or promos might mean lower prices. Or you could just consider moving the purchase to a new year’s budget, giving you the space and time to plan for the new system properly.

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