Issuance protocols for dispensing blood products using a pneumatic tube system

A transfusion service manager in Ohio has reviewed the following discussions at the links below, but wants to focus a discussion about the actual issuance of blood products by the blood bank when using a pneumatic tube system to deliver the products to the patient care areas.

• Use of pneumatic tube system for transporting platelet components
• Can pneumatic tube systems in a hospital be used for transporting blood components?
• Strategies for STAT provision of blood for patients who bleed out in a cardiovascular OR and/or ICU
• How do hospital Transfusion Services validate the integrity of blood products transported in a Pneumatic Tube System?
• Increased breakage rate of leukoreduced Red Blood Cells transported in a pneumatic tube system
• What guidelines do hospital Transfusion Services use to validate blood products transported in a Pneumatic Tube System?
• How do large hospitals transport blood products to patient care areas for transfusion?
• Practical concerns regarding the location of a hospital blood bank away from the operating rooms
• What is an effective strategy to assure that a blood product dispensed via a pneumatic tube system is administered to the correct recipient?

She reports that her hospital has been sending blood products through a pneumatic tube system for years, but they are interested in how other institutions verify a product's information before releasing it from the Transfusion Service via the pneumatic tube, since there is no longer a "transporter" to read off and compare information. Do others always read the information off verbally with two technologists? What if only one staff member is covering the blood bank (off shifts, holidays, weekends)? Do others allow only one tech to verify the information if the computer is used and products are scanned into the system?

The following comments have been received.

ADDENDA February 24, 2009

1. A transfusion service manager at a large hospital in Southern California reports that his facility has created a blood product request slip which includes a clerical check list that can be performed by a single Clinical Laboratory Scientist (CLS). Thus, this request slip can be used to dispense blood products via a pneumatic tube system. Whenever a blood product request slip is submitted to the blood Bank via the pneumatic tube system, each of the items of the clerical check that would normally be performed when issuing blood products face to face can be signed off by the blood bank CLS, who signs off on each step as it is completed.

2. A colleague reports that at her previous place of employment they would transport blood products via a pneumatic tube system, with the exception of crossmatched blood for patients with unexpected alloantibodies. The reason for not using the pneumatic tube system for patients with alloantibodies was a concern over losing a crossmatched unit in the system and the ensuing delay while trying to set up another phenotyped donor unit. According to their protocol, when a pneumatic tube carrier would reach its intended station, the individual retrieving the carrier was to immediately call the blood bank to confirm the carrier had arrived and then to read off the necessary identifying data to the technologist/assistant answering the phone, so that the transaction could be documented in the computer.

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