cerner Millennium Emissivity on Infrared Therm

[ModernDayVamp]

Our latest upgrade on our Cerner Millennium computer system effective Saturday, 4/17, requires us to enter the return temp & degree for all Blood Bank products. We're having problems setting the emissivity for the blood bags or? bag contents. Fenwal could not advise us as to what value to use. Anyone have any recommendations?

[Lcsmrz]

Most plastics have a emissivity of 95%. The default setting on the guns is usually 95-98%.

We validated the temp guns as a go / no-go screen, followed by an LIG thermometer check if not acceptable.

[ModernDayVamp]

Thank You for the feedback

[Mary**]

What is LIG?

[Deny Morlino]

Please allow me to post a clarification question. Lcsmrz (or anyone willing) by the emissivity of the plastic unit bags are you referring to thermal transfer? If so where did you find this information? I am looking for a reference that will allow for a "window" of acceptable time for units to be out of controlled temps (i.e. nursing taking units to the floor and returning without initiating transfusion). As John pointed out in another post regarding the 30 minute window our lab has long used as acceptable return policy, this time frame was developed when units were whole blood and the container was glass. I am currently in the midst of performing a study to try to find an acceptable window based on our environmental conditions and situations at our facility. Another source of information to refer to would be a big help.

Thanks

[Stmija]

What is LIG?

Liquid In Glass

[Lcsmrz]

From Wikipedia:

The emissivity of a material (usually written ε or e) is the relative ability of its surface to emit energy by radiation. It is the ratio of energy radiated by a particular material to energy radiated by a black body at the same temperature. It is a measure of a material's ability to radiate absorbed energy. A true black body would have an while any real object would have . Emissivity is a dimensionless quantity, so it does not have units.

Years ago, I got the 0.95 number from several industrial web sites for clear PVC plastic at 0 C, and it was used as a criteria for temp gun selection and configuration. That number was confirmed over the years in various articles about infrared thermography.

In the real world, I found that the temp guns accurately measure a unit's surface temp as a surrogate for core temp. Surface temp changes very, very quickly once the unit is removed from a refrigerator or cooler, hence the need for a more accurate confirmatory method if out-of-range.

I think there has been several posters at the AABB annual meeting over the past few years aobut these devices..

[Deny Morlino]

Thank-you. Helps quite a bit.

[Mary**]

What confimatory method do you use?

[Lcsmrz]

As a confirmatory method, we place an NIST-calibrated LIG thermometer between two units and replace it in the cooler. We read it after 10 mins, twice the temp stabilization time of the thermometer.

Almost all temp gun failures are tech-induced -- they wait too long after removing from cooler to take the temp, and the surface temp has already started to change.

[MsDuffy]

Just a note that there is a CR (Change Request) that has been generated requesting that Cerner allow the functionality of making the Return Temperature field mandatory to be enabled or disabled via a Preferences question.

CR Number: 1-3481563354

Description: With this enhancement, a preference question is provided to allow you to turn off the temperature box in Return Products or to allow a default temperature.

If your facility has not already been added to this CR, I would recommend that you log an SR with Cerner and request that your facility be added to this CR.

The CR has a status of postponed currently, but if enough clients request this - maybe they'll do something about it.

[pdameron]

I assume you have figured out that there is absolutely no validation by Millennium that the temperature entered is acceptable to return the product to inventory. You can enter 100C and there is no override required to accept the product into inventory. This new field just gives a false sense of security to endusers that the computer is doing some checking on acceptability. This is a HUGE training point for our hospitals implementing the upgrade.

[YorkshireExile]

I agree. We have recently been upgraded to the new CM version and this return temperature thing suddenly appears. Any temperature is acceptable as far as CM is concerned. Just one of many little CM problems we have. At the moment I can`t even dispose of a unit of whole blood if I wanted to!

[ChrisW]

We have chosen to enter "OK" if we will accept the unit back into our inventory or ">10" if we find it in our acceptable temp range. We reference this in our SOP.