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Waste of Plasma kept thawed for traumas in community hospital


Mabel Adams

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I need to predict how much plasma would go to waste if we kept some thawed at all times for traumas.  We would probably have to use A's since AB's are in such short supply and we would convert all our non-pediatric plasma to a 5 day outdate.  We are a 250 bed hospital in a rural area, level II trauma center and we get around 2 massive transfusions called on traumas per month (not all turn out to be true massives). We transfuse about 90 FFP a month currently to all patients.  We do some open heart surgery but they don't use much plasma.  We do occasional plasma exchanges via apheresis which might drive up our totals when we have such a patient.  I just need a ballpark idea whether we will waste 20%, 50% or 80% of the plasma we keep thawed so I can estimate the financial and supply impact.  Thanks for any input on how to make this estimate.

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rravkin, how often do you rotate the plasma from the trauma fridge?  Daily, on last day of dating or???

Mabel, I am not sure how often the plasma is rotated in the trauma refrig. Our day shift usually takes care of that. In trying to utilize this plasma before expiration we will thaw replacement plasma and exchange this, bringing the older thawed plasma back to BB for immediate use.

Edited by rravkin@aol.com
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we don't keep thawed AB plasma on the shelf because of limited availability but we do keep the other types.   We waste several every month doing this.   I am OK with the waste.   Having thawed plasma on the shelf, ready to go, helps with the workload when I have limited staff on some shifts.   

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We are a community hospital in a busy suburban area with about 300 beds. We also do open hearts and neurosurgery and have kept two emergency AB's thawed at all times for the past 5 years. We transfuse about 60-90 units of plasma per month and have around 2-3 MT per month. Last year we wasted 30 of 1016 units received. Because AB's are getting to be so precious we are leaning towards switching to A's instead. Our rule for using them up is if they have 2 or less days left. We will thaw type specific if they have 3-5 days left assuming the patient can wait.

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