Can anyone help me with finding what can and cannot be stored with blood products?? I've looked through AABB and FDA and didn't see anything special about requirements. I know it's BB knowledge to store your crossmatch units on a shelf, autologous on a different shelf, etc. Are there any written rules? The reason I'm asking is we are starting transplants and they need a refrigerator to store things in. HELP!!

You can store reagents and patient specimens in the same fridge as blood but you need to make sure that the range is set to accommodate both.  Our fridges are set with 2.5-5.5 C which meet both blood product guidelines and those of our reagents and specimens.  

Agree with Sonya, our fridges store reagent and blood products, so our range is 2.5-5.5 as well. I recall that autologous units that were "biohazard" because the donor was Hep C pos or something like that should be sequestered to their own area, and besides the BB knowledge of segregating certain things, I don't believe there is any rule about what can and cannot be in the same fridge. 

If you're talking about utilizing a fridge in or near the OR to store blood products for these transplants, then you just need to be sure the fridge is rated for storing blood products. Any old Frigidaire may not hold temps accurately throughout the whole fridge, which is what our OR attempted to get! We bought them an actual BB fridge (Helmer undercounter), and kept it specifically for blood only. 

In Canada, our standards also add a requirement to clearly labelled/segregated area:

CSTM 3.2.1.7
Contamination of blood components or blood products from patient samples, reagents and/or tissue products shall be avoided by ensuring that blood components and blood products are stored in designated storage equipment or in clearly labelled segregated areas within the storage equipment. 

(See guidance statement below:

Physical barriers are needed to prevent contamination of blood components and blood products from other materials stored in the same equipment or area.
Examples of physical barriers include a leak-proof shelf or container (preferably with a lid), clearly labeled to reflect the contents. If the physical barrier is a shelf, blood components/products should be stored above any potential contaminants (reagents, patient samples, etc.).)

sandra

1 hour ago, AuntiS said:

In Canada, our standards also add a requirement to clearly labelled/segregated area:

CSTM 3.2.1.7
Contamination of blood components or blood products from patient samples, reagents and/or tissue products shall be avoided by ensuring that blood components and blood products are stored in designated storage equipment or in clearly labelled segregated areas within the storage equipment. 

(See guidance statement below:

Physical barriers are needed to prevent contamination of blood components and blood products from other materials stored in the same equipment or area.
Examples of physical barriers include a leak-proof shelf or container (preferably with a lid), clearly labeled to reflect the contents. If the physical barrier is a shelf, blood components/products should be stored above any potential contaminants (reagents, patient samples, etc.).)

sandra

Very interesting, Sandra. I completely understand the intent of the regulations and I appreciate that first impressions of cleanliness of blood products are important. However, it appears that in an arguably overzealous attempt to keep everything "clean", the fact that the outside of any blood bag is not sterile is completely overlooked. The air to which the exterior of blood products are exposed (refrigerated or room temperature) is not sterile. But....this is not relevant because the product inside the bag is supposed to be sterile and appropriate precautions are used during infusion events.

That being said, I like a clean, orderly and well-labeled refrigerator !

I think AABB requires that stored blood products be maintained in a way to reduce errors.  The old tradition (maybe there are still rules) of keeping specimens below blood products suggests that specimens spill in the refrigerator.  I can't recall every seeing that happen.  I've seen a few doozy spills out on the workbenches but not in the refrigerator.