In light (pardon the pun) of the major power blackout on the East Coast on Aug. 14, a California blood banker asks the question: How Well Do You Know Your Emergency Power System?

For those blood centers and transfusion services affected by the prolonged power outage in the Northeastern United States it would be of interest to know how your emergency power system stood up during this crisis, and what you learned about any of its vulnerabilities that may be of help to others in the future.

By coincidence, an article by Dr. Carol A. Bell of USC addressing this issue was published in the Spring 2003 issue of 'CBBS Today', and was just posted in the Newsletter section of this website. This article contains a list of important questions that could be of help is assessing the adequacy of your emergency backup plan. Colleagues are advised to review this article before responding.

The following responses were received.

ADDENDA Aug. 28, 2003

1. A colleague at a large medical center in the northeast reports that her blood bank is in an older part of their medical center. Approximately 3 hours into the blackout earlier this August the emergency power failed in some parts of their blood bank. This power failure was limited to the older areas of the medical center. Computer systems were shutdown because the air conditioning failed. The blood bank had to use battery powered lighting and paper forms for all work. Their pneumatic tube system was inoperative and medical students and nursing staff were used to transport products. Part of their RBC inventory was transferred to operating room blood bank refrigerators, which were in the newer part of their medical center, where emergency power was running. Some stem cell products (on dry ice) had to be transferred to freezers in other areas of the medical center. A crossmatch station was set-up in the operating room area. Diesel fuel supplies were used to deal with the emergency power failure, which was electro-mechanical. A senior engineer indicated that their emergency power system had been tested under a full load but never for an extended period of time because departments had expressed reluctance to engage in a prolonged test due to the inconvenience. Needless to say, they are now in a position to make revisions to their existing emergency plan.

ADDENDA Oct. 7, 2003

2. A colleague in Pennsylvania reports that during the recent Hurricane Isabelle her facility lost electrical power and there was a time delay until the emergency power generator came on. This brought to their attention that they might want to have a backup plan for their backup plan! A question they would like to ask the e-Network Forum is: 'What is the longest time period that a platelet concentrate or a unit of plateletspheresis can be stored without the product being gently mixed (shaken) on a rotating device, should there be a power or equipment failure?' The Pennsylvania colleague states having found only vague references to how long platelets can be kept without being gently mixed (shaken).

3. A colleague in Barcelona reports anecdotal experience with manual mixing of platelets during power outages. When he worked in a small blood bank in Catalonia (in northeast Spain) power failure was a common problem. When such a power outage would occur, he manually mixed platelet concentrates every 8 hours and documented this process on paper. It was his observation that the transfusion of those platelet concentrates resulted in anticipated CCI's and no reactions appeared.

4. Editor's Note: For further discussion on this platelet agitation question colleagues are referred to the June 2001 issue on this forum entitled 'Can returned platelet pheresis units be reissued?"

ADDENDA Oct. 8, 2003

5. A colleague in the Kaiser Permanente system reports that in regards to the question, 'What is the longest time period that a platelet concentrate or a unit of plateletspheresis can be stored without the product being gently mixed (shaken) on a rotating device, should there be a power or equipment failure?' that AABB Standard 5.1.8A - Requirements for Storage, Transportation, and Expiration states that the maximum time without agitation is 24 hours.

Please submit comments to the e-Network Forum.

Ira A. Shulman, MD
CBBS e-Network Forum Editor & Moderator