Bags for transporting blood products at issue/dispense

[fanilhas 10]

How many of you place the blood product into a transport bag when you are dispensing/issuing one unit? If so, do you use a biohazard bag or some other type of bag?

[John C. Staley 1,104]

If you put "Secondary Blood Bags" in the search box you will find a past thread on your question.  

[David Saikin 1,384]

Yes, we do.  It is part of the bloodloc system.

If you don't put them in bags, transporters must wear gloves to handle (though they are supposed to even if blood is bagged).

Edited September 30, 2019 by David Saikin
added info

[MAGNUM 83]

No we do not, unless the nurse absolutely demands that we do it. At that point we will use just regular biohazard bags.

 

[slsmith 54]

We use plain old plastic ziplock bags. Not so much for the safety of the transporter but in the event they drop the bag and it happens to break.

[AMcCord 1,260]

We use biohazard bags that are part of the FinalCheck lock system.

[Sharion Marshall 13]

We use cool shield bubble mailers. The bags are silver and are insulated and they are actually mailers. The bags help retain the temperature of the blood. We issue a lot of blood and sometimes when the blood is returned for whatever reason, the blood is too warm even though it was returned within 30 minutes. The price of the bags are not bad. You will have to order 5 cases at a time to get the discount price. The company is ULINE shipping supplies. Google cool shield bubble mailers to see what they look like. So far, we are pleased with them.

[Ward_X 62]

I like the sound of the insulated bags, actually

We just use high-density opaque white bags for issuing in-person pickups, and clear ziploc plastic bags for issuing products through our pneumatic tube system. The theory is that they'll get the product and issue within 30 minutes, but sometimes we do get returns and they fail temperature check because they were placed on countertops or wherever they land up in room temp...

[PerkinsSutton 0]

We use a biohazard transport bag. 

[SMILLER 864]

We do not use outer bags.

Scott

[Baby Banker 77]

We do.  We use plain clear zip lock bags.  We have used biohazard bags in the past.  We stopped because there was a concern that the patients might think we were giving them biohazardous units.  

[Ally 8]

Yes we do. we use clear bakery bags.  You don't have to use Biohazard bags.

[jshafer 1]

Yes, we use biohazard bags that seal.

[Cliff 408]

We use regular zip lock bags for transport in the tube system.  White opaque open bags with handles for issue out the window, nothing for coolers.

Does anyone have a bag specifically for platelets, maybe ones labelled "Platelets, Do Not Place In Cooler"?  We get a modest amount back in coolers, at least a few a month.  We also issue over 13k platelets a year, but waste is waste.  Someone sat on a machine for 2 hours giving us that gift.

[Laurie Underwood 36]

Yes, we use regular zip lock bags.

[ninachka224 0]

Sharion, 

Can you please tell me what size of cool shield bags you order?

Thank you!

[Sarah R 1]

We use ziploc bags that have a large red stripe for blood products that go via pneumatic tube system to patient floors. They have the red stripe on them because nurses complained they could not tell if a tube held a blood product in it when glancing at the tube when it falls on their station. Therefore if they see the red stripe they are more likely to go empty the tube sooner knowing a blood product could be in it. We also use a Ziploc bag with a yellow label stating "PLATELET DO NOT PUT IN COOLER" when issuing platelets to the OR. You'd be surprised at how many platelets we still get back from the OR in the cooler even with this label on the bag!

[Cliff 408]

1 hour ago, Sarah R said:

You'd be surprised at how many platelets we still get back from the OR in the cooler even with this label on the bag!

While I do believe you, sadly I would not be surprised.

[Baby Banker 77]

On 10/18/2019 at 1:33 PM, Cliff said:

While I do believe you, sadly I would not be surprised.

I seriously doubt that I would be surprised either.

[Kmur4kits 1]

On 9/30/2019 at 2:53 PM, Sharion Marshall said:

We use cool shield bubble mailers. The bags are silver and are insulated and they are actually mailers. The bags help retain the temperature of the blood. We issue a lot of blood and sometimes when the blood is returned for whatever reason, the blood is too warm even though it was returned within 30 minutes. The price of the bags are not bad. You will have to order 5 cases at a time to get the discount price. The company is ULINE shipping supplies. Google cool shield bubble mailers to see what they look like. So far, we are pleased with them.

Do you reuse these bags or use a fresh one each time? Also, what size do you use?

 

[Baby Banker 77]

On 9/30/2019 at 1:53 PM, Sharion Marshall said:

We use cool shield bubble mailers. The bags are silver and are insulated and they are actually mailers. The bags help retain the temperature of the blood. We issue a lot of blood and sometimes when the blood is returned for whatever reason, the blood is too warm even though it was returned within 30 minutes. The price of the bags are not bad. You will have to order 5 cases at a time to get the discount price. The company is ULINE shipping supplies. Google cool shield bubble mailers to see what they look like. So far, we are pleased with them.

Do you re-use them?