Background The Clinical Pharmacy and Oncology Unit manufactures chemotherapy preparations for homecare patients. The unit has to ensure the quality of chemotherapy products until their administration to the patient. That means that optimal storage conditions must be maintained during transport.

Purpose To assess the current thermal performances of ten coolers used to transport chemotherapy preparations and to compare them with the manufacturer’s specifications.

Materials and methods The coolers were prepared as for the practical conditions of use. The timer is triggered when the two cold packs, the test load and the temperature sensor are placed in the cooler. Coolers remain closed during the experiment. Two parameters were checked: the time (t) required to obtain the optimum temperature in the cooler and the time for which the cooler was kept at the required temperature (t’). The qualification method was defined by the AFNOR standard NFS 99700 and the coolers tested were Dometics type MT 4. The tests were performed in duplicate.

Results See Table.

In both outside temperatures conditions, the time t’ (thermal performances of the coolers) measured was significantly shorter than the values provided by the manufacturer. The time required to obtain the optimum temperature in the cooler under manufacturing unit conditions was 2 h 45 min.

Conclusions The current thermal performance of the coolers is lower than that specified by the manufacturer. The procedure for preparing containers for treatments of homecare patients has been updated. A contract is being prepared for an annual test/overhaul of the coolers.

No conflict of interest.