Posted June 29, 20169 yr comment_66273 Is anyone out there using the PGD test to extend the shelf life of apheresis platelets?
June 29, 20169 yr comment_66276 No, it didn't seem cost effective to us since we can just rotate out the shortdated ones with our blood supplier.
June 30, 20169 yr comment_66282 We are actually looking at the feasibility right now. Did you see the article in the most recent Transfusion? Great info! We are a trauma center that is about two hour STAT delivery time from our supplier. Additionally, our supplier charges $100 restocking fee when we rotate plts....
June 30, 20169 yr comment_66284 36 minutes ago, CarrieM said: Additionally, our supplier charges $100 restocking fee when we rotate plts.... OUCH -- that hurts. We were actually told by our supplier that rotating platelets was not efficient for them, and they would rather us let them expire on our shelf and give us credit. Does not seem like very good stewardship of the blood supply to me, but it was their choice. I think something like this would be really valuable at my current facility considering we are keeping 6-8 platelets on our shelves at a time. We have heavy users in trauma, oncology and cardiac cases. Some nights we throw away four or five. Unfortunately today is my last day here but I'll be keeping an eye out for info to send to my supervisor about this.
June 30, 20169 yr comment_66292 We are not looking into this because I believe in order to extend the shelf life of platelets to 7 days you have to be a registered/licensed facility with the FDA. We transfer our short date platelets to our Trauma hospital who has a better chance of being able to use them before they expire.
July 7, 20169 yr Author comment_66407 Thanks for the replies. I was not aware that being a registered/licensed facility with the FDA was a requirement.
December 28, 20168 yr comment_68154 Not knowing the exact details but I have to agree with GCloc. Not just any facility can extend expiration dates on any pharmaceutical/blood product unless they are licensed through the FDA plus you have written SOP's to back it up and be FDA inspected. Is there anyone out there in the blood center world producing 7 day platelets? I know it was done years back but Its gone back to the five-day.
December 28, 20168 yr comment_68166 4 hours ago, Gnapplec said: Is there anyone out there in the blood center world producing 7 day platelets? I know it was done years back but Its gone back to the five-day. In order to have a 7 day platelet, it has to be tested on the day of transfusion, so I would think that it would be difficult for blood suppliers to manage that process.
December 29, 20168 yr comment_68176 We started doing this in August. We are 500 bed, FDA registered, trauma center. We use the National Blood Exchange (AABB) for almost all our blood, everything is flown in and it's ours. We've been able to decrease our orders since we've extended some platelets. The cost savings is more than the cost of testing. We did have to amend our FDA registration, the Verax PGD test is licensed by the FDA and this is allowed. The test is very easy! The harder part is getting the workflow down and when to test. We don't test everything, we've set a minimum inventory and test accordingly. But we do hold onto expired 5 day plts to test if needed.
December 29, 20168 yr comment_68180 Hi Kate- we have had disucssions regarding whether to only use the day 6/7 pheresis only if no"in-date" platelets are available or to use these up first to prevent waste. Would you mind sharing your protocol?
December 29, 20168 yr comment_68186 We are probably going to go with pathogen reduction rather than test. If we do that we can rotate back to our supplier, otherwise we'd eat the cost of all unused units - which would be a pile of money.
December 30, 20168 yr comment_68196 Hi Marianne, we don't have a hard/fast rule about using day 6/7 over "in-dated" - it really depends on inventory, what's expected to come in, and orders. The goal is to have 5 units ready to be transfused. We usually test at 10-12pm, adding 24 hrs each time. But if there are 4 on the shelf, no orders, and we're expecting a delivery of 3 more in a few hours...save the money, don't test, keep the platelets on the expired shelf available to be tested if needed. Definitely judgment calls ... and comfort levels. It's still a work in progress... BTW - I love your beach picture! Retiring there would be great!
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