Platelet Procedure start up

[tstew]

Starting to bring platelets in house. Any recommendatons for start up?

[Liz]

Apheresis collection?

[tstew]

Yes. We are a small lab and will be receiving Apheresis platelets. Platelet agitator has been ordered. Just trying to get some informaton regarding procedures, I beleive the temp. is

20-24C. Thank you

[David Saikin]

Is your envirnomental control sufficient to maintain the plts at the appropriate temp? Do you have a plt incubator for this purpose or will you document RT every 4 hours? If stored "out of temp" and you transfuse you will have to submit a Biological Product Deviation to the FDA.

[L106]

Work with your blood supplier to find an arrangement that meets your needs without sacrificing good product utilization.

We are a medium-size hospital 100 miles away from our blood supplier. When we first started stocking platelet phereses many years ago, we made an arrangement with our blood supplier that we would stock one or two plateletphereses (on an agitator in an environmental chamber, of course.) Every-other-day we would rotate any unused plateletphereses back to the blood center (for credit) and they would send us 1 or 2 "fresh" plateletphereses. ("Fresh" means the day after collection, once all the testing has been done.)

We now routinely stock 4 plateletphereses and get "fresh" shipments every day (and rotate any unused plateletphereses back to the blood center for credit.) (The daily rotation allows the blood center adequate time to utilize the platelets at other hospitals before they expire.)

[Liz]

That is an ideal set up and agreement! Very accommodating supplier! How many beds is your hospital? How many plt do you use per year?