Does anyone know if there is a required validation for tubing blood through a pneumatic tube system? Our doctors would like us to tube blood, especially for our open heart patients, but it seems to me that there should be more to it than just deciding we will do it and doing it.

I am not aware of a specific requirement to validate a tube system, but you are required to keep the products in a controlled environment.

We have performed a validation for our system. Before a floor can have blood tubed to them, we require they have have an audible and visual alarm (most of the locations are remote) and the station have a lock code that needs to be entered to release the blood product.

We have had a couple of locations that did not pass our criteria, and we will not send products to them.

What we found to be a bigger problem is the system itself was overtaxed. We had to limit how many locations we can send to and are currently not validating any new locations.

I attached a copy of the simple spreadsheet we use to capture the data and a blank validation report we complete.

Tube system validation.doc

Tube System Validation.xls

Guidelines for Pneumatic Tube Delivery Systems: Validation and Use to Transport Blood Components

List Price: $25.00Member Price: $20.00Many hospitals and transfusion services are now using pneumatic tube delivery systems as a means of delivering blood products faster and more efficiently. To ensure product safety and the maintenance...

May be this will help you. Book is available @ www.aabb.org

Guidelines for Pneumatic Tube Delivery Systems: Validation and Use to Transport Blood Components

List Price: $25.00Member Price: $20.00Many hospitals and transfusion services are now using pneumatic tube delivery systems as a means of delivering blood products faster and more efficiently. To ensure product safety and the maintenance...

May be this will help you. Book is available @ www.aabb.org

Good find aakupaku!

Does anyone know of any studies regarding PLATELETS and the effect (in vivo) of tubing them? Are the platelets affected in any way???

Are other facilities allowing platelets to be tubed ?--

We tube our platelets also.

I am not aware of such a study, that does not mean one does not exist though.

We send all of our blood products through the tube system and have been for 4 years. Todate we have had no reason to be concerned. We have seen no increase in nonresponsive platelet transfusions or anything else that would suggest a problem.