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Dumbwaiter use


DawnS

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Hello all,

I currently work for a level one trauma center that utilizes a dumbwaiter to transport coolers to OR and ERT. The problem we are having is when we send coolers up on the dumbwaiter there are times when these coolers do not get retrieved or someone retrieves them but somehow they get lost in transit. Like many other hospitals all departments are short staffed so no one really wants to give up a FTE for this duty. I am just curious to know if your hospital has this problem and what you are doing to resolve it? Thank you for any input. I will add we are working on putting a Haemobank in the OR and already have one in ERT.

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  • 1 year later...

Hi Dawn,

We use trained staff to transport our coolers for Emergency transfusions.  They are not dedicated for this purpose in that it is not their only job.  It is paramount that patient identification, in writing, be given to these runners for ID purposes.  We have used Blood Bank staff, then Security and now ICU technicians.  We do not have dumbwaiters.  We do have to sort of look after our transport coolers to make sure they are returned otherwise in the past they have wound up lost in the transit following the patients care.  For example ER to OR to ICU to IR back to OR etc..

 

Hope this helps

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We have a Central Transport Department that picks up most of our blood from the Blood Bank, even during MTPs (MTP=Massive Transfusion Protocol).  We have a pneumatic tube system, but we don't use it for blood products except when sending them to our satellite lab in the CV unit.  

We don't have insulated carriers; I don't even know if that is an option, but the transport time is so short that it doesn't matter, and since it is going to another lab, we are confident that it will be taken out of the PTS station quickly and put into controlled temperature storage.

When I worked next door (large university hospital) they started using their pneumatic tube system to send blood all over the hospital.  This was 'suggested' by consultants as a way to save money.  They have had some challenges, but overall I think it works ok.

Our pharmacy uses the PTS, but I don't know what procedures they have in place to ensure the right drug goes to the right place.  I know they have them; I just don't know what they are.

Edited by Baby Banker
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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Just a note of caution. The only issue that was observed with pneumatic blood transport was the following; A tech sent a crossmatched, tagged unit of red cells to the 5th floor nurses station for patient A.  Twenty minutes later a tech sent a crossmatched, tagged unit of red cells to the 2nd floor nursing station for patient B.  A few minutes later the 2nd floor nurse called the TS lab and indicated they had already received the red cell unit for their patient B and did not need the 2nd one.  ?? That's right, the first unit that was to go to the 5th floor was misdirected by the tube system and went to the 2nd floor.  Since the 2nd floor nurse was expecting a rbc unit for her patient, the unit was started and being transfused.  Luckily both patients were O+ and the unit being transfused was compatible with the patient being transfused.   Issues of concern:   1) human error, train as we do, still happens.  Read the Tag!  2a) In a large hospital there are blockage problems occasionally and either the pneumatic software decides the re-routing of tubes, or a maintenance technician does the re-routing. 2b) It is expected that a station that received a tube with contents not for that station would send it to the appropriate station, or back where it came from, or call the appropriate sender.    Do you know if this happened it would be caught in-time?  We used coolers for trauma one ER.

 

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Regardless of all the possible causes along the way the ultimate human failure occurred at the bed side!!  People are probably getting tired of me saying this but as long as there are humans involved in a process human error will occur.  All we can hope to accomplish is minimizing both the number of times it occurs and the resulting ramifications.

:coffeecup:

 

9 hours ago, mrmic said:

Just a note of caution. The only issue that was observed with pneumatic blood transport was the following; A tech sent a crossmatched, tagged unit of red cells to the 5th floor nurses station for patient A.  Twenty minutes later a tech sent a crossmatched, tagged unit of red cells to the 2nd floor nursing station for patient B.  A few minutes later the 2nd floor nurse called the TS lab and indicated they had already received the red cell unit for their patient B and did not need the 2nd one.  ?? That's right, the first unit that was to go to the 5th floor was misdirected by the tube system and went to the 2nd floor.  Since the 2nd floor nurse was expecting a rbc unit for her patient, the unit was started and being transfused.  

 

 

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Couldn't agree more Mr. Staley.  Humans are what would keep me up at night.  I was just suggesting that pneumatic tube systems have advantages but also new opportunities for errors, mechanical or software related and may introduce new types of machine/human interactions that may lead to a new set of human errors.  This was a new realization for us and required more awareness training to hospital staff involved with the pneumatic tube system.  I just would like to encourage TS supervisors to think outside the box as this type of machine/human interaction is likely to increase and may introduce new ways for human error.  Yea?🤔

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