Safeguarding Blood Inventory: A Critical Component of Patient Care
Blood is a vital hospital resource used primarily for treating medical conditions like anemia and cancer (67% of transfusions), as well as for surgeries (27%) and trauma cases requiring rapid transfusions, making the proper preservation and availability of blood—despite its limited storage life—essential for effective patient care and improved outcomes.
Considered to be a hospital staple, blood is used in almost every department. To save lives, hospitals must always have a supply of blood available when patients need it. As red blood cells can only be stored for 42 days, and platelets expire after a short 5 day period, ensuring that blood is preserved and maintained properly is critical. The following are the most common uses for blood throughout the US.
Medical Conditions
Many medical conditions such as anemia or cancer require frequent blood transfusions. Whether it’s to treat complications or to offset medication side effects, these blood transfusions make up a staggering 67% of the US total – that’s approximately 14 million transfusions each year.
For those suffering from diseases such as sickle cell anemia, frequent blood transfusions are the best way to provide those individuals with the best quality of life. Many people with this disease can expect to receive new blood every 3 – 12 months. These frequent transfusions combat the severe complications of this disease and can greatly increase the life expectancy of those suffering. Due to these reasons, it’s extremely important that a steady supply of blood be readily available when needed.
Surgery & Trauma
The likelihood of someone suffering from blood loss during a surgical procedure is incredibly high. Many surgical teams will even require that blood be available in the OR before the surgery begins in case it is needed. This allows the surgical team to prevent complications and begin the transfusion process immediately. Due to these increased odds, surgery accounts for 27% of all blood use throughout hospitals.
When a trauma event occurs and a patient has suffered serious blood loss, hospitals initiate massive transfusion protocol (MTP). During these situations, it’s a race against the clock; acute blood loss contributes to a large portion of mortality in the early post-trauma period. If there isn’t enough of the correct blood type available, the trauma victim may not survive.
Child Birth
The average amount of blood loss after one birth is between 500mL and 1000mL. Unfortunately, some women experience postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) and experience severe blood loss and require an immediate blood transfusion. This is rare and only makes up only 6% of the total national blood usage.
Safeguarding Blood Inventory and Reducing Product Waste
A traditional method of manually recording the condition of blood bank refrigerators has the potential for inconsistent data collection and inaccuracy. By implementing an automated, wireless environmental and temperature monitoring solution, hospitals can take immediate action if blood storage temperatures begin to approach unsafe temperatures. This greatly reduces waste and safeguards blood inventory levels.
Automated environmental monitoring systems are easy to use and customizable, allowing the blood bank to monitor and document a range of information such as storage temperature and humidity. At the application-level, users can view refrigeration groups and receive alerts when units are outside of their monitored threshold.
To learn more about how automated environmental and temperature monitoring solutions can enable your blood bank to maintain compliance, eliminate product loss, improve patient safety, and increase staff productivity, download this overview.
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Healthcare's Leading Blood Bank Environmental Monitoring
CenTrak’s wireless environmental monitoring solution for blood banks ensures patient safety and regulatory compliance by automatically maintaining and reporting optimal storage conditions—temperature, humidity, and air pressure—thereby preventing blood product spoilage, reducing waste, saving costs, and streamlining staff workflows.
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Temperature Monitoring
At the 2011 ASHE Show, hospitals showed strong interest in CenTrak's Remote Temperature Monitoring solution, which offers reliable, wireless, 24/7 temperature sensing with automated alerts and detailed reports to help healthcare facilities comply with stringent standards for storing critical medical resources, and can be integrated with Real-Time Location Solutions for expanded functionality.
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Improper vaccine storage in healthcare facilities, such as incorrect refrigeration temperatures or equipment failure, compromises vaccine potency and effectiveness, endangers patient safety by leaving them unprotected against diseases, risks wasting limited vaccine supplies, and undermines patient trust, making adherence to manufacturer guidelines and regulatory standards essential.
CenTrak Clinical Pharmacy Environmental Monitoring Solution
The CenTrak Clinical Pharmacy Environmental Monitoring Solution uses wireless sensors and software to automatically track and control temperature and humidity in critical medication storage areas—such as refrigerators, freezers, and ambient rooms—providing real-time alerts, ensuring patient safety, regulatory compliance, loss prevention, and staff efficiency across healthcare settings including clinical labs, vaccine storage, blood banks, and cryogenic storage.
Blood Bank Monitoring
CenTrak's Blood Bank Environmental Monitoring solution uses wireless LCD sensors and real-time alerts to automatically track and maintain optimal temperature, humidity, and air pressure conditions in blood storage and transport, ensuring compliance with AABB standards, preventing contamination and spoilage, enhancing patient safety, reducing product loss, and improving staff efficiency through automated reporting and NIST-certified accuracy.