A recent JC survey preparatory "class" for our hospital stated that (from an infection control perspective) no fans are allowed in clinical spaces. Do Blood Bankers allow fans in their spaces when the temperature is too warm? What about Transfusion vs Donor Centers?

Technically, we are a "Transfusion Service." Yes, we sometimes have fans.

We had a fan to prevent us from dying of a heat stroke in Blood Bank for quite a while - boy, oh boy, did we have dust bunnies! Two sets of CAP inspectors didn't approve because of possible tripping over it safety reasons, but nothing changed until the fire marshall stopped by one day. And he really didn't like it, so our temp problem had to fixed.:cool: We are now cool and comfortable and we like the fire marshall.

(We are a transfusion service.)

I haven't got any fans that want to come into my lab - nobody likes me!

:cries::cries::paranoid::paranoid:

Sorry - I couldn't resist - but I should have done.

:devilish::devilish:

I too questioned this. I looked all through the JC Standards and couldn't find anything, I also tried the CFR's, and came up blank there too. It's funny what we come to think of as a rule just because it's what we've always done or have always been told.

There are two ways I can think of it being a "rule".

If your infection control department has a policy against it, then it is now a rule. TJC requires you to have infection control policies and to follow them.

Next, this one is a bit weaker, but most clinical equipment that is to be used in a patient care area needs to be approved by a biomedical department. A transfusion service, or a blood bank usually isn't involved in direct patient care, so this would be a lot harder to say is a "rule".

I have always found TJC and the FDA to be very responsive to asking for help with these matters. We aren't CAP accredited so I have no experience with them.

With all the equipment and staff at the BB you definitely need a good central or split cooling sysytem. Wires for fans are rightly not allowed by Safety Officers. And Fans are not that efficient. Ask for a good A/C. Speak to your Dept and /or Hospital Safety Officer. We had sparks (ages ago) due to the heat from the equipment (and staff) and after I called the internal fire dept (for the sparks and even smell) a few times, stronger ACs were installed! Now its freezing! Put the ACs in your next budget.

Edited April 20, 201213 yr by Liz

Years ago, we sweated in the summer and froze in the winter. Since then, they have added more big cooling units outside for the lab and improved the heating. But when we relocated our BB a few years ago, we found that the decent airflow was again a problem, both for summer and winter. We bought a few of those ductless dual wall units and they work pretty well. If you Google them I think that you will find they run about $500 and up. If your situation is bad enough, you should be able to get the hospital to budget them for the Lab ("Can't be sure patient work is OK with all this sweat in my eyes..")

Pretty sure the main regulatory agency for fans would be your local Fire Marshall. Beyond that, maybe OSHA, and like has been pointed out, JCAHO will expect you to follow your Infection Control policies, so i would start with them first if you haven't already.

Support for argument for better HVAC in lab: We have tests that are temperature sensitive and are to be run at "room temperature". They were validated at room temperature as well. We also have items that are to be stored at "room temperature". When air temp in the lab exceeds the generally accepted room temp [you may wish to define a specific range, or a range given on items you store], we can no longer guarantee the quality of our test results. [in my transfusion service, if RT is >25C, I call "Incident Command" and inform them that blood bank testing will not be available due to excessive temperatures. You would not BELIEVE how fast the HVAC team gets to the blood bank and makes certain that air temp is lowered.]

You might want to look on the back of all your blood storage devices, computer towers, automated equipment, just about everything and you will find a FAN. What are you going to do about those? Why would they be any different from an infection control aspect? They all move air around.

Malcom, please show a little restraint!

We use fans if the air goes down for whatever reason.

Malcolm: ditto to what John says (I'm glad you said that 'cuz I was going to)

I haven't got any fans that want to come into my lab - nobody likes me!

:cries::cries::paranoid::paranoid:

Sorry - I couldn't resist - but I should have done.

:devilish::devilish:

Malcom - you crack me up! (in the best possible way)

Sorry John and David (and anyone else who thought I shouldn't have posted my comment); I'll try harder to be restrained next time.

Put it down to excess caffiene after a nasty night on-call.