Drug Mart turns to Sonicu for Trusted Remote Pharmacy Temperature Monitoring

The Ohio-based grocery chain & retail pharmacy relies on Sonicu for asset protection and compliance automation, along with more timely power outage alerts.
A power outage at your home is a bit of an inconvenience. The frustration can start when you have to light the candles after dark, and start worrying about the food in your refrigerator going bad.
When you’re running a pharmacy filled with temperature-sensitive drugs worth millions and a retail food store with aisles of frozen goods, deli meats, and other perishables, a power outage can quickly turn from a mere inconvenience to a veritable nightmare.

At Discount Drug Mart, which operates dozens of retail locations across Ohio, the operations and facilities team has a multi-tiered plan ready to be deployed when an outage strikes. 

Chris Peshek, Director of Pharmacy Operations at Drug Mart, relies on his Sonicu temperature monitoring solution to play a small but important role in the organization’s power outage response plan.

“We didn’t expect the Sonicu system to be able to help us stay alerted to power outages, but it's certainly a great feature to get those alerts on our phones and be able to check in with the individual store and find out immediately: Is it just the pharmacy fridge, or is the entire store out of power?"

Many of the newer Drug Mart stores are designed and constructed with an on-premises generator that switches on immediately when a power outage occurs. 

The older stores rely on updates from the power company to determine if they roll a mobile power generator to keep the cold and frozen products safe during the outage. 

“We’ve engineered a lot of redundancy and response planning around power outages, and having Sonicu being able to alert us with a text and email is another layer of awareness and protection that helps us protect our operations and customers,” Peshek said. 

Joe Mundell, Chief Revenue Officer, Sonicu, said many clients rely on the power outage alerts as a precursor to a temperature excursion or other operational challenge precipitated by a lack of electricity. 

“We have clients in Florida and other areas prone to hurricanes that use Sonicu to know if power has been knocked out at a remote research station or far-flung facility where they have critical work,” he said.

“Backup generators are great when you have them, but there’s always that extra peace of mind when you’re able to see in real-time the power supply situation from your cell phone during a natural disaster.”

Even in the event of a power outage, Sonicu has engineered the hardware to both keep running and record data. 

The SoniShield Duo communicating meter has both a battery and on-board memory that can operate for up to a year without power, meaning customers will be able to know the difference between a power outage that adversely impacted their assets and one that was resolved quickly enough that cold and/or frozen assets weren’t impacted. 

COVID Compliance Turns to GLP1 Protection

Why pharmacy temperature monitoring is more crucial than ever. 

Peshek said Drug Mart had for years relied on paper logs for their pharmacy compliance reporting when the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine prompted the retailer to adopt a more robust system. 

The government made continuous monitoring a requirement for any organization trusted with administering the vaccine. The scarcity of the vaccines, coupled with the speed of distribution, made protecting every lost dose an essential part of the COVID-19 vaccination program. 

“We were logging temps two to three times a day, and keeping track of min-max temperatures, but were admittedly fairly limited in our approach. We always knew we wanted to upgrade to remote, 24/7 monitoring, so it was a good thing when COVID sort of forced our hand,” he said.

“The benefits far outweigh the costs, and it’s helped us in more ways than just compliance.”

The COVID-19 vaccine has fallen from the headlines, but the remote, wireless Sonicu temperature monitoring system is now helping Peshek and his scores of fellow Drug Mart pharmacists protect a new class of drugs that has also transformed their operations: the popular GLP-1 class of drugs.

A New Temperature Monitoring Challenge

Protecting the public's favorite new prescription drug. 

The GLP-1 (Glucagon-Like Peptide-1) class of drugs consists of medications that are used to treat type 2 diabetes and, in some cases, obesity. 

The FDA approved Wegovy (semaglutide) injection for chronic weight management in adults with obesity or overweight with at least one weight-related condition - such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, or high cholesterol - in June 2021.

This under-the-skin injection is the first approved drug for chronic weight management in adults with general obesity or overweight since 2014, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 

In 2023, the FDA approved another similar drug from Eli Lilly.  Their combined use has skyrocketed among the public, prompting pharmacies like Drug Mart to carry significant stocks of these costly drugs. 

“The contents of every one of our fridges has massively increased in value because of the amount and cost of these drugs, and we only expect that to increase as more of the public adopts these drugs for weight loss,” Peshek said.

“That’s made the value of our temperature monitoring system increase as we are even more sensitive to protecting these expensive contents.”

Why Sonicu: Intuitive Tech, Affordability, and Unwavering Customer Support

Peshek said Drug Mart vetted several potential providers before selecting Sonicu based on some important criteria. 

“The tech seemed very solid, and we’ve been even more impressed with it over time. It was priced appropriately, and the support has been good,” he said. “We know we can always get in touch when we have an issue, and the team is prompt in solving our challenges.”

He said they’ve been especially impressed with the integration with their primary pharmacy operations platforms, Pioneer Rx. The PioneerRx platform dubs itself the leading pharmacy operations software for independent pharmacies. 

The integration consists of a simple yet effective link that allows the pharmacists to see Sonicu alerts and alarms in the PioneerRx system. 

“It’s another super helpful way the Sonicu system helps our team because the alerts show up and don’t go away until they’re resolved,” he said. “We’ve made them intentionally annoying so the alerts can’t get ignored.” 

He said the Sonicu tiered alarming system also ensures all the right people are alerted when something goes awry. 

“Each store has a different configuration and people who get alerted, and we really appreciate that flexibility and ability to tailor the system,” Peshek said. 

“There’s value with a digital 24/7 solution that can ping you at 2 in the morning, even if it means getting someone out of bed,” he said. “Even if that person has to be paid overtime, the justification is there with the cost of the refrigerator.”

The tailored alerts, compliance reporting, and ability to remove the cumbersome paper-based logging system are the primary reasons why pharmacy leaders like Drug Mart adopt a wireless, cloud-based monitoring system like Sonicu. 

Drug Mart has to comply with both the Ohio Department of Health and the state Board of Pharmacy. 

“Prior to using Sonicu, a state inspector would arrive for their random inspection, and they would always ask to see the temperature logs. If a store had neglected to do that, we'd get a warning from the state board,” Peshek said.

“Now we have a foolproof mechanism to prevent that with Sonicu.”

Predictive Analytics to Drive Smarter Operations

Peshek said that the new data has helped his team predict which pharmacy fridges and freezers could pose potential threats to their operations. 

“We know that when we start to see anomalies in temperature swings, even if they’re not out of range, that can help us predict when the unit might go kaput completely,” he said. “It’s all about having as much data as we can to make better decisions.” 

Many Sonicu customers set up similar thresholds that help them identify worrying temperature trends before there’s an excursion. 

“The real-time and historical data the Sonicu system delivers is about far more than just alerting clients when there’s an excursion,” Mundell said. 

“It’s also about leveraging data to better understand how your mission-critical cold storage devices are performing - or not performing - and helping compliance professionals make informed decisions.”

About Drug Mart 

Discount Drug Mart, Inc., is an Ohio-based drug store chain that opened its first store in Elyria, Ohio, in 1969. Since that time, Drug Mart has established stores in over 20 Ohio counties, and currently operates 77 stores, including Dayton and Columbus. 

Low prices, outstanding customer service, and a wide array of products on offer are at the heart of Drug Mart’s growth and success. 

The 25,000+ square foot stores stock more than 40,000 items. From health and beauty aides to household merchandise, small appliances, paint, hardware, and auto accessories; magazines, greeting cards, paper products, groceries, frozen foods, school & office supplies, and seasonal merchandise.