Pneumatic Tubes for Dispensing Blood

[Mary**]

Thad,

Do you tube Rhogam?

[John C. Staley]

Mary, we tubed RhIG at my old facility. Always packed it in the foam so it didn't bounce around inside the carrier. Never had any problems that we knew of.

[Mary**]

Can you send me the info about the therometer you used for validation please? I sent you a private message about it.

Thanks,

Mary

[Penny Thiel]

Wow! Have things ever changed!!

I did work years at a place that had Translogic - good system. We never used it to transport blood for 2 reasons: the primary being if the unit broke within the system during transit, it would have been a major undertaking to decon. the system. There were also questions of temp. QC. Course, like I said, this was years ago and I'm sure the carriers have been greatly improved to prevent leakage. Sounds like you've got it all put together! Great! Good question!

[John C. Staley]

Leakage is still a concern (probably more imagined than real). To address it we simply put the unit(s) in a "zip-lock" bag and sealed it up. When I left we had been at it for over 6 years and never had to find out if the zip-lock would hold. None of the bags had ever broken/leaked.:pcproblem

[suhu]

oops, posted in wrong place.

[hughes]

I am looking for an SOP on transporting blood products via tube syste. Could not access John's SoPs.

Would appreciate any help.

Somers Point, NJ

[Maryam]

Hi how are yous sure that each units goes to each ordered ward

thanks

[Mary**]

Do you remember who you purcahsed the ziploc from? Were they "biohazard" bags?

[Thad Czuba]

We purchas our Zip-Lock bags from:

INFECON Specimen Bag Liquid tight with pocket, Stock #: 5022-IP Size: 9X12, Quantity: per box 250, per carton =4 boxes = 1000 bags.

Barcoded Number on end of each box: H138 5022 -IP

Manufacturer COM-PAC International

[Brenda K Hutson]

We are considering using our pneumatic tube to dispense blood one unit at a time.

Would anyone want to share their experiences or procedures with me?

I have done this many years in different places. Also, there is no reason you cannot send more than 1 unit at a time; just not more than 1 patient at a time (in the same tube). With about 10 years experience in 2 Institutions, I can tell you that the only problem we had was maybe a couple of units which were M.I.A. But they can trace that and Engineering found them.

At one place, we actually had 3 tube stations (very large Medical Center): 1 for the Main Hospital, 1 for the attached Children's Hospital, and 1 for OR only. For OR, they kept the coolers in OR (with cold blocks in refrigerator and freezer) and we sent the units with temp. monitors on them; through the tube system.

I am actually in the process of completing an SOP to start this where I have now been for 2 years. The staff is nervous (though I keep trying to convince them it will be fine). The biggest "potential" problem (one that happened at this large Institution) was Issuing on the wrong patient. If you have the flloor send any kind of document when requesting blood, I would pound into the staff, depending on your computer system, that they always enter the patient's MR# from the pick-up card; NEVER from the paperwork on the unit. That way, if they enter the MR# from the card and don't see their unit listed (which they obtained from the refrigerator), they know something is wrong. On the other hand, if they enter the MR# from the paperwork on the unit, they could issue blood other than what was requested.

If you currently perform some kind of read-back with the perso coming for the blood, you will lose that check. The staff will have to rely on the computer to tell them when something is not right. However, the Nurses SHOULD be doing a readback with another Nurse, prior to administration.

I would recommend you purchase the AABB Guidelines booklet on sending blood through the pneumatic tube, just to make sure you follow all of the regulations. How that is done will vary from Institution to Institution, depending on your processes, size, etc.

Brenda Hutson, CLS(ASCP)SBB

[Mary**]

Do you purchase them directly from Infecon? I saw them in a Marketlab catalog and they were very expensive. Thanks.

[Thad Czuba]

We purchase our BioHazard ziplock bags from Fisher Scientific.

[carolyn swickard]

Sorry all - no one seemed to answer this question - if you send two RBC units up in a tube - what does the floor/unit do with the second unit while the first one is being transfused? Do you have floor refrigerators? Do both units have to be transfused within 4 hours? Or what?

[JOANBALONE]

Yes, some floors have fridges, others will transfuse both units within 4 hours (dialysis or patient has 2 lines or emergency release etc) We will ask the reason if more than one unit is requested and the floor does not have a fridge.

JB

[BB1956]

Do you have a copy of your SOP? Also do you have the larger diameter tubes by PEVCO or the smaller tubes? I have been interested in validating tubing blood to the units however we have the smaller PEVCO tubes and so far I have not seen any hospital with this size tubes using the tube system to transport RBC. I was unable to open John's procedure.

[Mary**]

I haven't written it yet. We have Translogic tubes.

[Brenda K Hutson]

Do you purchase them directly from Infecon? I saw them in a Marketlab catalog and they were very expensive. Thanks.

Specifically, what are you referring to in "purchasing?"

1. The pneumatic tubes?

2. The large thick ziploc bags?

3. Small biohazard ziploc bags that you put individual units in; then put those into the larger bag?

The pneumatic tube was already in-use here, just not for tubing blood. They were using only small biohazard ziploc bags, so I still need to purchase the larger ones. So, once I know what specifically you are looking for, I will get the information for you.

Brenda Hutson

[John C. Staley]

Sorry all - no one seemed to answer this question - if you send two RBC units up in a tube - what does the floor/unit do with the second unit while the first one is being transfused? Do you have floor refrigerators? Do both units have to be transfused within 4 hours? Or what?

We would only send more than one unit per carrier in emergency situations and the nurse assured us that they had multiple lines running and they were going to hang them immediately.

Sorry about the SOP not being accessible. Maybe Cliff can do something for it. I am no longer in a position to resubmit it or I would.

:imslow:

[Brenda K Hutson]

We would only send more than one unit per carrier in emergency situations and the nurse assured us that they had multiple lines running and they were going to hang them immediately.

Sorry about the SOP not being accessible. Maybe Cliff can do something for it. I am no longer in a position to resubmit it or I would.

:imslow:

I handle units being tubed to the floor, exactly as I do handing them out in the Transfusion Service. So, in critical care areas (i.e. ICU, ER, OR), we would Issue multiple units if the patient had 2 lines going; otherwise, only 1 unit (RBCs). For the place I used this system the most, there were 3 tube stations; 1 was dedicated just to the OR. The OR actually kept validated coolers in the OR (Transfusion Service validated them), as well as the cold blocks that go in them (Cell Safe Coolers). So, if we were sending multiple units to the OR, we would place Safe-T-Vue Monitors on the units, place them in the pneumatic tube(s) and then call the OR to tell them they were on the way (as the tube stations were not in the OR rooms themselves). Someone from OR would then obtain the units and either transfuse them right away, or place them in a cooler. Restrictions were still the same; if they came back, they would only be accepted if the temperature monitor was acceptable).

Brenda Hutson

[Mary**]

The large ziploc bags. Thanks.

[sbenson]

Would you share your procedure with me as well? sbenson@marylandgeneral.org

Thank you.

[Brenda K Hutson]

Would you share your procedure with me as well? sbenson@marylandgeneral.org

Thank you.

Not sure who you are addressing this question to?? I only have a draft currently primarily because I am looking into different options on how to meet the AABB guidelinest that there be some kind of mechanism to track the receipt of the blood product. I am working with Engineering and Nursing to see what my options are. I think that in other places I have worked, it is tracked via a computerized tracking system.

Brenda Hutson

[Brenda K Hutson]

The large ziploc bags. Thanks.

We are ordering ours from a company called Miller Supply (millersupplyinc.com). The Product# is BIO-001 for Red Biohazard Bags (these are not the small specimen biohazard ziploc bags; they are large, thick plastic ziploc bags with a red line near the ziploc). Can't say if all quotes will be the same but for us, it was $15 per bag with a minimum requirement of 20 bags (we ordered 100 since we know the floors will not just turn around and return all of our bags to us immediately).

Good Luck,

Brenda Hutson, CLS(ASCP)SBB