We are looking at changing our coolers to transport platelets between facilities of a large hospital system.  We have been having some trouble with our platelets staying in temp during the winter.  Any suggestions?

We get platelets from our blood supplier in their heavily insulated shipping boxes with 4 conditioned gel packs and we still get chilly platelets at least a couple of times each winter. I think the key is in how the shipping box/cooler is handled. Require your courier/shipper to keep your cooler inside a warm place, not in an unheated warehouse or the back of an unheated truck. And I wish you luck.

How long will they be in transit between the various hospitals?    PelicanBioThermal has the Credo coolers and they have a series for 22C transit protection.  We have one of the soft side ones that we use to move Platelets between our facilities.  It works fine.  Their website is extremely difficult to work with - just get the phone number and call them, if interested.

22 hours ago, cswickard said:

How long will they be in transit between the various hospitals?    PelicanBioThermal has the Credo coolers and they have a series for 22C transit protection.  We have one of the soft side ones that we use to move Platelets between our facilities.  It works fine.  Their website is extremely difficult to work with - just get the phone number and call them, if interested.

The Credo coolers are very good - pricey, but good. Used by the military under pretty rough conditions. We use them to send blood products to our cancer center.

Yes, definitely call them. Once you get hooked up with a sales rep, you can do business by email.

We use the shipment container the blood supplier uses which is validated for 24 hours. However, the platelets never stay that long in the courier car as when the platelets are shipped to another site it is usually a direct shot.

Can I ask how does your facility transport platelets in the hospital? Does anyone use phase 22?

When we issue platelets for transfusion, they go out the door in a FinalCheck ziplock bag. The infusion must start within 15 minutes so we don't use a cooler. When we issue them to our cancer center, which is a short walk across campus, we issue them in a FinalCheck ziplock bag in a Credo cooler at 22 C.