Blood Banks: Storage Requirements
Blood banks are designated with the task of effective storage of blood and other vital components necessary in cases of medical emergencies. Blood banks, as the name suggests, house blood collected from healthy individuals through donation drives.
Malfunctions of any kind with the storage units at blood banks can cause loss of vital, and in some cases, limited medical resources. Thus, the importance of smooth functioning of medical equipment at blood bank facilities cannot be stressed upon enough.
The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) guidelines state that as soon as the blood is collected from the donor, it is required to be stored in a container that maintains a constant temperature that ranges between 1-6º Celsius. The blood can be stored in such a manner for 42 days from the date of collection, after which it is considered expired.
Plasma (liquid portion of blood) on the other hand, requires a much lower storage temperature. It is required to be frozen and stored at a temperature of ≤-18ºC until it is thawed. Upon being thawed, it would have to be moved to a medical refrigerator that maintains a temperature between 1-6º Celsius.
Having established the importance and necessity for appropriate storage of blood, Aegis would also like to offer solutions that meet these strict requirements. Aegis prides itself on the ability of its medical refrigerators and freezers to maintain a constant temperature with as little fluctuations as possible. This helps protect the contents of the medical components placed inside.
One of the requirements for a blood bank refrigerator is to store the temperature reading locally on the unit. Our refrigerators store up to one month of data that can be extracted from the USB port. An optional chart recorder is also available. The AEGIS remote monitoring system meets all the requirements of the FDA.
Our medical refrigerators come packed with additional features such as digital display, sensitivity to temperature fluctuations, power and battery failures. They are programmed to trigger an alarm whenever something goes wrong so that immediate action can be taken.
The medical freezers at Aegis boast of high efficiency in terms of temperature uniformity and stability. It also includes an automatic defrost feature that helps maintain optimum cooling capacity. Like our medical refrigerators, they also come armed with an alarm system that triggers a notification whenever there is an issue with its functioning.
Temporary storage and transportation of blood and plasma between locations can be safely accomplished with the help of our portable refrigerators, freezers and coolers. They are built to withstand transportation related issues owing to their sturdy design and material. They are also packed with features such as temperature control and sufficient power backup.
Thus, our refrigerators and freezers are ideal when it comes to storage of sensitive medical components at blood banks. In case you would like to know more about our products in detail do browse through our listed products on our website.
You can also give us a call on 1-800-796-2344 and our representatives will be happy to help you find a product best suited to your needs.
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