shelleyk482

You can use either. For products with an expiration of less than or equal to 72 hours, you must use the exact time. For products with an expiration of more than 72 hours, you can use the number of days @2359 (Technical Manual, 16th ed, pg 219). We have been using the 120 hrs but are in the process of changing to the 5 days @2359.

You can use either. For products with an expiration of less than or equal to 72 hours, you must use the exact time. For products with an expiration of more than 72 hours, you can use the number of days @2359 (Technical Manual, 16th ed, pg 219). We have been using the 120 hrs but are in the process of changing to the 5 days @2359.

It is easier for inventory management if all thawed plasma expires at the same time. When the expiration times stagger, the techs have to be more aware of when a particular product may expire. We have recently had 2 instances where a product expired during a shift and less than 30 minutes later we had an order and could have used the product if we were using the 2359 expiration. With a 2359 expiration, it is less likely that this type of scenarion will happen during the night.

One homozygous or 3 heterozygous.

One homozygous or 3 heterozygous.

If you choose to provide compatibility testing and products to a non-affiliated facility, make sure that the contract is clearly written as to which facility is liable for which functions. You will want to clearly delineate that your responsibility begins and ends with the testing performed at your facility (i.e. the specimen you received is compatible with the product you issued); if employees from your facility do not collect the pretransfusion specimen, you cannot claim that the product furnished is compatible with the patient. Responsibility for proper patient identification has to be expressly assigned to the facility collecting the specimen & transfusing the product. I have also insisted on doing periodic inservices with the contract facility concerning proper patient identification, specimen collection, handling of blood products, etc. You will need a policy/procedure that clearly defines labelling and specimen requirements and you must insist that it be followed. You will also probably want to define how they transport the product (type of cooler needed, etc); I've always insisted that they bring an appropriate transport container and do not issue if the transport container is not brought to the lab at the time of pick-up. The policy should also state your return policy if a product is not used for some reason; I have never allowed return of a product that went outside of our control, if you do, get with your blood center because this may affect your ability to return consigned products. You will also need to decide how you will handle possible transfusion reactions.
I have worked in several different places that have these types of contracts and it hasn't been a problem. When setting up the process, you need to make sure that you think out every single step and every possible liability and clearly delineate this in the contract &/or policy/procedure.

How often do you need to replace the "bulb" on the x-ray type irradiator? We irradiate approx 1,000 products per month and when we replaced our irradiator a few years ago, our biomed department calculated out the cost & frequency of replacing the "bulb" and determined that it would be cost prohibitive for us to be able to keep an X-ray based machine running with our volume. Are any other large volume facilities using this type of irradiator?