23 hours ago, Winter said:

We pull a segment at issue and keep in a rack for a week.

We're a fairly large facility, many issued units are returned, so this would not work for us.

We pull a segment when we log the unit in and keep it in a bag for 49 days.  Then if we need to pull that for a reaction, or anything else, we simply look up when it was received and that is the bag it is in.  We issue a couple hundred units a day.

7 hours ago, exlimey said:

Cliff,

If you wouldn't mind, please explain what you are validating - not specifically how, but what elements are you evaluating.

Sure, here is our validation plan, we are still validating the process.  I took out names and links to documents.

DTT.pdf

We are validating that now.  We were going to add in a K+ cord cell, but those were hemolyzing, so we'll type the recipient instead and if needed give them K-.

14 minutes ago, amym1586 said:

Do you have to wait until the results are back from CAP before doing so?

You need to wait until after the date that the results are due with your proficiency tester.  It might be several more weeks until you receive the results.

We have been playing with several different types of temp dot / stickers over the years and find them all difficult to deal with and unreliable.  I think our discard rate would skyrocket due to indicators being touched or otherwise falsely activated.

Does anyone use one of these?

https://www.hampshirecontrols.com/rapid-response-temperature-verification-system.htm

When we issue red cells in a cooler we include a dummy bag with a temperature indicator - these are lead pellets inside of parafilm.  They supposedly fall when the cooler is exposed to temps outside of the allowed range.

These pellets are no longer manufactured.

We move away from established processes slowly here.   We looked at some of the modern temperature indicators and did not have much luck validating them.

What do others who issue large numbers of coolers do when returning products?

My heartfelt congratulations to you!

We did a lot of work developing the attached charts.  It does not include ZIKA, we are modifying it now for that.  This is a small excerpt from a long SOP.

696.docx

 

On 10/12/2016 at 11:16 AM, Marianne said:

Hope this helps.

Preparation of Phosphate Buffered Saline Solutions.pdf

Hmm, that looks oddly familiar.

2 hours ago, Joshua said:

It would be nice if more people used this site for other related departments. I have used the BB site for years. I cant seem to find anywhere that has a place for lab questions and discussion.

Hi Josh,

Not sure I follow you, are you referring to PathLabTalk?  We have many sections here.  Go to the main page http://www.pathlabtalk.com/ and you'll see many sections listed.

We had a microwave many years ago, maybe 20?  It was always an adventure.  I suspect the device was inferior to what is available today and the plastics have likely improved too.  We would get broken products regularly (several times a week) and it was disgusting.  It smelled awful, looked like scrambled eggs when you opened the door and was really messy to clean up.

If you are big enough to have trauma surgeons, I suspect you are not a small hospital.  For larger facilities another alternative is to have thawed plasma always available.  If not used in 24 hours, you can give it to regular patients.

For non allo donors we only ask questions to ensure the donation is safe for the donor.

Is that possibly an intranet link?  It did not let me access it.

9 hours ago, Mabel Adams said:

I'm pretty sure no one can run up our Mt Washington

That sounds like a dare.  

Thanks, it's always scary when I recommend we stop doing something and it's nice to hear confirmation that others are doing it the same way I propose.

Our clinical program does an informed consent of the HPC donor prior to them coming to collections.  We also do a watered down consent with the donor on the day of collection.

We are not AABB accredited for stem cell collections / processing - only FACT, TJC and FDA.  If part of our process is to ensure we have a copy of the informed consent for collection on file (from days or weeks prior), do we need to consent the donor on the day of donation?  I can't find a rule that says we do.

Sorry for the delay, while I was away I only had my tablet and no access to pics.  Then we got home late yesterday.

So, on August 20, 2016 I rode my bike to the top of Mt. Washington.

The day started out just perfect, the weather was a little cool, silly me, I put on a base layer.  That only made it to about mile 2.  The gearing I had on my bike was a single chainring at 22 and a cassette of 11-36.  It should have been more than enough to get me up.  I wanted to ride a little to warm up before the climb, but the top speed on this thing is 14 pedaling.  I rode up and down the street out front for about 5 miles and pulled in to the start right before my group.

Me with my numbered helmet and time chipped bike, sadly saying goodbye to my wife.  She needed to drive to the top before the start.  The road is closed to cars during the ride.  Cool new jersey (silly base layer).

Here's a pic from the start a few minutes before my group left.

Sorry, no more pics until I get to the top, stopping to get nice photos was pretty far from my mind.

I'm a pretty open book, so most of you know I have significant bladder issues.  It makes being active really hard.  I only sleep 30 minutes to an hour at a time so I never feel rested before an event.  Sometimes the issue intensifies for a week or so, lucky me, this was the week.  The pain was pretty bad the day before and I had hoped that was the worst of it.  It wasn't.  The day of the ride was the worst for this cycle.  I stopped about 4 or 5 times to pee, by the time I got to the top I was peeing a fair amount of blood.  Being in pain like that made the ride a little harder.

So, anyhow, I hit climb and felt OK.  Heart rate went to around 160 - 175 and stayed there for the whole ride, I was hoping for a little lower as 170 is really my max for a short effort.  The first mile went well, by mile 2 I was pretty overheated so I took off the base layer.  Mile 3 through 5 were wearing me down.  I took a little breather around mile 4 and honestly thought of giving up.  It takes a lot to make me quit, but this hill is a lot.  I pushed on to mile 5 and hit the dirt part of the ride.  It's about a mile of really hard packed dirt, not much different than the road.  Sadly I walked this mile.  Not because it was dirt, but more because it was probably between 15 and 18% and nearly killing me.  While walking my bike my heart rate was 160, it was that hard for me.  What I found a little funny, was the swearing I heard from others.  There were a lot of dropped chains and even a couple of snapped chains.  There was no help on the hill, only at the very bottom before the start.  I've trained myself to never shift under pressure, I don't think everyone else did.

At mile 6 I got back on.  It was all downhill after this - if you think of 12 - 22% as downhill.  Since I was now at mile 6 and less than 2 miles from the finish, I could hear the crowds cheering people on.  This was very motivating.  Quitting was even less of an option now.  I tried my best to ride slow so I could finish.  After the ride my wife told me of people who just stopped at the final climb and fell over, gave up and walked or started crying.  I've been up this road before on foot so I knew what lie ahead.

The last 1/2 mile was not as flat as I remembered from the run.  I was beyond exhausted by this point.  Since I was so slow most of the other riders were already at the top, plus all of the people watching.  It's really hard to describe how supportive they all were, it honestly brings tears of joy to my eyes even now thinking of it.  When you start the final climb (22%) people are calling out your name (it's on your number) and telling you things like you got this, keep going, you can do it.  This was a really steep hill.

Here's a pic (from my wife) to show the crowd and the final part of the climb.

Here's me at the flat part just before the finish line.

Me with my blankey and participant medal.

Me with my wicked pissa bike.

Some pretty cool guy from Canada that we gave a ride down to.  He had no idea what to expect so he brought his bike with standard gearing.  He made it!

So I finished.  The results are here.  My official time was 2:25:55, 502 out of 538 finishers.  Garmin moving time was 2:05.  Garmin file.  Not sure how many dropped out.  The rest of the pics are here.

Will I do it again next year, possibly.  If I do, it will be under the guidance of a coach who's only training goal is to get me to climb faster.

I want to thank my mechanic for setting my bike up so that I had 100% confidence I would not have a mechanical.  Most important, I thank my wife.  She is my biggest fan, supporter and cheerleader.  I love her more than she knows. 

 

Welcome

PathLabTalk pens are free for the next week or two.  You just pay shipping!

 

This is my fifth time doing the ride for Angels.  The first time was one of the shorter rides, either the 40 or more likely the 20.  Then I did the 100 a few times, then last year I tried again with my wife, but we (she) had a little accident near the beginning (she's fine).

This year I plan to ride the 100 again.  Angel Flight is a great organization, please consider a generous donation.

See this link for more info on Angel Flight.

Use this link to donate.  Please enter Cliff as the rider name, I'm the only one.  Any amount is truly appreciated.

If you prefer not to donate online, I also attached their form so you can mail in a donation, it will be credited to my account.
2016 Ride for Angels Donation Forms (1).doc

Thank you

I'm afraid to say.  I'm a compliance person for a large blood bank / donor center.  I have two people that work in just compliance.  We also have lab compliance and two other compliance people that work there.

Thanks David.  We have a bunch of electronic thermometers and the tips cost a little bit.  The TempaDot would be more, but if we add in the initial cost of the electronic thermometer and the probe that needs to be replaced every now and then, we think the TempaDot might save money.  We'll never outdate them, we'd use at least 10,000 a year, probably a lot more.

We have not washed platelets before on the Cobe, do you do it in a closed system?  As you pointed out, it's a 4 hour product, regardless of it being closed.  When we pooled platelets and pooled cryo we never did sterility QC.

I would not think a sterility check would be required.