In aged care facilities, refrigeration is not merely a kitchen function — it is an operational risk exposure.
Kitchen freezers, servery fridges in resident areas, and medication storage refrigerators all represent potential points of failure. When temperatures move outside acceptable limits, the consequences are operational, financial, and reputational.
The responsibility for maintaining safe storage conditions ultimately rests with the Approved Provider.
Where Temperature Risk Typically Occurs
Temperature excursions most commonly occur:
- Overnight
- During power interruptions
- Following equipment faults
- When doors are left open
- When maintenance issues go undetected
Most facilities rely on manual checks performed during business hours.
A twice-daily log records history. It does not provide continuous oversight.
If a freezer or medication fridge fails outside staffed hours, the delay in detection becomes the operational risk.
Accountability Does Not Transfer
Outsourcing catering or refrigeration maintenance does not transfer accountability under the Aged Care Quality Standards.
If food spoilage or medication compromise occurs, the question becomes:
Did the facility have appropriate systems in place to detect and respond promptly?
Governance expectations increasingly focus on demonstrable systems, not retrospective documentation.
The Operational Impact of a Temperature Breach
A single overnight freezer failure can result in:
- Significant food loss
- Disruption to meal services
- Incident reporting requirements
- Increased scrutiny during review
- Reputational exposure
The operational consequences often exceed the annual cost of continuous monitoring.
Facilities that rely solely on periodic checks accept a gap between documentation and control.
Reducing Operational Risk Through Continuous Monitoring
Reducing temperature-related operational risk requires continuous oversight, immediate alerting, and reliable record retention.
The Temp Assure Aged Care Facility Monitoring Package is designed to provide full-facility refrigeration coverage, including:
- Continuous multi-point monitoring across kitchen, servery and medication areas
- Immediate alerts when temperatures move outside defined limits
- Centralised reporting suitable for governance oversight
- Secure cloud-based data retention
- Optional 4G backup connectivity for resilience during network outages
The facility package includes capacity for up to 15 monitored refrigeration assets, allowing expansion without renegotiation.
A Governance Question
If a refrigeration failure occurred tonight, who would be notified — and how quickly?
Operational risk is reduced through continuous oversight, not periodic review.
