Kid At Heart

Collegues, my apologives for the cross post. I have a special request. Please take a look at the New Ultra Low Freezer Validation topic in the Quality forum. I would apprecaite your thoughts and ideas. Thank you in advance.

We currently have an older ultra low storage freezer used to store human tissue and now have received a new one. The area where the old freezer is located is very small and there is no room for the new freezer to be validated concurrently with the old one. We have located an area for the new freezer to be validated on another floor of the hospital. The idea is to have the new freezer initial validation to be started outside blood bank with no tissue in the freezer and then when initial function is validated, move it to it's permanent home in the blood bank. At that time, we will immediately check alarms and move the donor units into the new freezer and proceed with validation plan including checking temps manually every four hours. However, there is a concern regarding moving the tissue into the new freezer prior to completion of all validation. I would like input on perhaps a better way to handle this new freezer validation or if there are any thoughts on whether the above plan works for regulatory compliance. Note: We have formal validation plans with pre-validation medical director approval, signature, etc... Thank you for sharing.

UPDATE: The results are in - and it is not what we hoped. Not issuing blood products in a plastic bag (when not issued in a cooler) was an indirect finding when we received our final Joint Commission report. They referred to: TJC Standard: IC.01.03.01 Primary Priority Focus Area: Infection Control: hospital identifies risks for acquiring and transmitting infections. So needless to say, we are now issuing all our blood products in a cooler or in plastic bags. We are using a clear plastic bag at this time. It is not opaque and it is not labeled as "Biohazard". A huge "Thank you!" to those have have responded. Beth Polstra, Transfusion Mgr., Children's Healthcare of Atlanta

We are just completing a week of hosting The Joint Commission and I have a question. The inspector was not pleased that our two hospitals were issuing donor units for transfusion without placing the donor units in individual plastic zip lock bags and I understand that this will be a formal finding and that they are recommending a risk assessment. I know of no requlatory requirement do to issue in a plastic bag. I have seen this practice in some facilities, but know of nothing that would drive this. We do realize that there is a concern if the unit were to be dropped and it burst. Thoughts please? Thanks in advance!

Well, this is crazy. After all these years you would think there would be a consensus in our hospital blood bank. We need some current practice input here. For our tube testing method, the package insert for Panoscreen states to add checkcells to all negative and weak reactions. Some staff argue that reactions 1+ or less should have checkcells added. Others W+. What is your current practice please? Thanks for sharing.

What is your billing practice when you recieve a request for compatibility testing and the patient does not receive the donor units and special testing is required? Do you charge the patient for the antigen testing or other special handling (i.e. washing, irradiation, etc....) if required? We would definitely not charge for the donor unit since not transfused but wonder what other current practice is reagarding the other charges. Thanks for sharing. Beth P. Children's Healthcare of Atlanta

We are looking for a non-gamma source irradiator vended by company in the USA. Does anyone have a recommendation? Please send private email. Thanks!