RKB1988

@kmiller Double check the Operator's or Service manual. Its states NOT to use DI water as it may be corrosive to the chambers and baskets. They suggest using tap or distilled water. Tap works just fine for us. We haven't extended cleaning beyond 1 week.

That's exactly why I am asking if someone figured this out and has a reliable workflow. I can't imagine the proposed process actually working.

Can anyone share their logistics to storing blood at the launch pads for the choppers? We are getting a requests to store whole blood at each chopper launch site so the flight team can grab a cooler and take it with them out to the field. I am wondering about storage, coolers, freezing of ice packs for the coolers, swapping out the shortdated WB, documentation of storage temps, documentation of transfusion etc. Has anyone else already figured these pieces out? Love to see a policy or procedure for this...Thanks!

Thank you all for your responses. There is a big risk in the Surgery department when it comes to blood requests. There is a significant amount of movement of patients and patient labels being left in rooms, paper charts etc. and request can me made on the wrong patient. It sounds like those that have responded do not have any provisions for surgery except "downtime" process. Any other ideas??

Looking for everyone's input on how the nursing units, ED, Surgery etc request the blood they are picking up. What do they use for patient identifiers? Trying to avoid the use of a patient sticker or label as these can be left over in the old chart pocket of drawer in a patient chart. Potential for wrong patient to be requested by inadvertently using the wrong patient sticker. Anyone have a pick up slip that the nurse can print out of epic with all the patient ID on it?

This is interesting. We had the Emergency release order placed/signed by the physician in Epic. FDA inspected sited that the physician signing and order wasn't enough because we had to also include the clinical reason the blood was requested and the AABB statement. I added order questions in epic with answers like "acute blood loss" but in the end we opted to just keep the paper form to avoid any more scrutiny from FDA.

So Malcolm, should we perform titer on our "strong reacting antibody" before we do the carryover study to ensure that the titer is >5210? What if we use straight Anti D and ran a patient with a known negative screen behind it?

Yes! We just completed the records request. I felt that they asked for reasonable items. Nothing over the top. For example, last two months reagent QC records, last 2 years temp outliers etc. The biggest hurdle was that the FDA had a hard time opening the encrypted emails we sent. Our cyber security team was not comfortable with the file share software that the FDA suggested, as they felt it wasn't secure enough. We sent the emails several different ways through several different types of encryption. I felt it was fairly painless in comparison the what we are anticipating for CAP virtual inspection.

I want to bring up this topic again. It's been ten years since the original post. Is anyone using aeroscout remote temp sensor for their blood bank monitoring? I have been playing with a test device. It has a locator so I am wondering if anyone throws these devices in coolers to accompany the blood to Surgery? I can see exactly where our BB cooler is at any time! I am thinking that if I create a full temp report (every 5 minute) of the cooler while it is in Surgery, I can let them keep blood longer than 4 hours (as long as we validate the coolers to maintain temp beyond 4 hours). Anyone using a remote temp sensor to this capacity?

Me too please! :) Thank you!

Helmer has new platelet agitator and incubator coming out in September. I would get a quote for the new one and wait if you can. I am looking to replace mine and am downsizing to the smallest one. I attached the spec sheets and brochure that Helmer just sent to me. Looks like a lot of great features to the incubator! Continual temp monitoring so no need for every 4 hour temps! Helmer Pro-Line Platelet Brochure 380450-1.pdf Helmer TDS-PC100-Pro Platelet Incubator Spec sheet.pdf Helmer TDS-PF15-Pro Platelet Agitator Spec sheet.pdf

Anyone using a rapid plasma thawer?

We put the little purple sticker on the syringe or bag, not on the ISBT label.

We use the rad sure sticker but when the parent bag is irradiated and we pull a syringe or an aliquot, we use a label similar to the one you referenced. The nurses are always looking for a sticker. Of course the product is also labeled with the irradiated product ISBT label from our Hematrax printer. Curious to hear what others are doing and if this practice is compliant...

Hello! I was wondering if anyone could share their experiences with rapid plasma microwave. I have been asked my a physician to look into getting one. The one I found available in the US was from Tropitronics. Are rapid thawing systems approved by the FDA? http://www.plasmathaw.com/home.html Any input at all would be appreciated.