I am uncertain if this has been asked before but, is there a hard rule that states Blood Bank has to be in a separate room from the core lab? 
 

The BB department is very small and cramped with little to no room for high traffic areas. It’s going to be a nightmare with the recent installation of an Ortho Vision. We are currently experiencing some heating, ventilation issues and running out of space. The most logical option for us is to move to the part of the lab that is more open. 

Thanks in advance. :-) 

There is no hard rule that Blood Bank has to be in a separate room. The whole lab here is in the same room, including the Blood Bank. 

No such accreditation or regulatory need for a separate room to my knowledge.

You won't be cited for not being in a separate room.  You can be cited if your work area is too small and cramped.  We were cited by the FDA years ago.  I was walking beside the FDA inspector talking to him and one of my staff walked right into me.  

There was also an issue where if one of the blood refrigerator doors was open, there was no way to get from one side of the Blood Bank to the other.

Even so, Administration was not happy at all about having to give us more space.  They did, but grudgingly and they gave us the least amount they could get away with.

There is a recommendation, or maybe a standard I can't put my finger on right now, that says that access to the blood bank should be controlled. Meaning people can't just walk in and take blood. Nothing that says it must be a separate room. My entire lab is behind badge access doors, and the blood bank is semi-separated by a counter and some swinging half doors (saloon doors) so that people picking up products would certainly be noticed if they just popped into the actual department. 

To my knowledge, there has never been such a rule, regulation or requirement (the 3 "Rs" that rule the blood bank).  In two blood banks / transfusion services I worked in, one was in a separate room but certainly big enough.  In the other, we were part of the lab but separated from the rest of the lab in the same way chemistry was separate from hematology.  The only department that had it's own room was microbiology.

In this case, the Safety goons may be your very best friends. If the space you describe is really that bad, you could use the safety angle as leverage. Alternatively, modern instrumentation (including the Ortho Vision) often has very specific installation requirements (space/clearance/ventilation, etc)....that may ammunition, too.

CAP simply requires adequate space, but workload and staff safety are both considerations as a part of that requirement. I agree with pushing the safety angle, as well as instrumentation requirements. 

There is this one thing, I don't know if it is new regulation or it has been around for a while. I think CAP doesn't want any cardboard boxes in the core lab. This is due to card board boxes being porous and prone to biological contaminants. Blood bank is usually the only section that use cardboard boxes, the saline cubes.  Thus the blood bank needs to be in its own seperate room.  I guess contamination is a big no-no for the core lab, but not so much for the blood bank.  I will look for this regulation and see if I can find it. 

 

Edited November 6, 20222 yr by SbbPerson
my grammar needs serious help

I know Joint Commission doesn't allow boxes on the floor. We had to add shelving with solid bottom shelves to accomplish that. We also are not supposed to store anything under the sinks. We were not cited by CAP for that in the core lab or Blood Bank prior to adding the new shelving. Would be interested to see which checklist item is cited for that, something new?.

It's a recommendation rather than a requirement but I don't envy you - I've been there!