Laboratory Labels Large Enterprise Health Care System Improves Quality Control Using PDC Healthcare's Timestrip® Blood Temp 10 Indicators

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PDC’s Blood Temp 10 blood temperature indicator Case Study

Large Enterprise Health Care System Improves Quality Control Using PDC Healthcare’s Timestrip® Blood Temp 10 Indicators

Introduction

This case study of a large enterprise health care company is based on a July 2017 survey of PDC’s Blood Temp 10 blood temperature indicator customers by TechValidate, a 3rd-party research service. The profiled company asked to have their name blinded to protect their confidentiality.

Challenges

The business challenges that led the profiled company to evaluate and ultimately select PDC’s Blood Temp 10 blood temperature indicator:

Previously used the following approaches to ensure blood temperature compliance:
- A thermometer / probe to measure blood temperature
- The 30 minute rule only applied to units NOT transferred in a cooler. Units not transferred in a cooler usually fail the temperature test at about 10 minutes anyways.
Experienced the following challenges before using PDC’s Blood Temp 10 indicators:
- Uncertainty that blood bag temperature exceeded FDA guidelines
- Difficulty maintaining our supply of homemade ‘bag thermometers’ utilized in coolers.
Found it somewhat difficult to feel absolutely certain that blood bags had not exceeded 10° C and could be returned to storage prior to using PDC’s Blood Temp 10 indicators.

Use Case

The key features and functionalities of PDC’s Blood Temp 10 blood temperature indicator that the surveyed company uses:

Currently uses the following approaches to ensure blood temperature compliance:
- Discards the blood if it’s returned to a blood bank after 30 minutes
- Measures the blood core temperature and discards it if it reaches 10° C
- Blood NOT in a cooler has to be returned within 30 mins AND the temperature of the unit has to be less than 10C. Blood transferred in a cooler with wet ice is exempt from the 30 minute rule, just the temperature rule applies.
Currently uses the following equipment to measure blood core temperature:
- An indicator
- A thermometer

Results

The surveyed company achieved the following results with PDC’s Blood Temp 10 blood temperature indicator:

Cites the following as the key benefits of using PDC’s Blood Temp 10 indicators at their hospital:
- Improved patient safety
- Peace of mind
- Improved quality of care
- Maintaining quality control during transportation and storage
- Assisting in compliance with regulatory guidelines
- Irreversible, real-time temperature monitoring
Did not improve workflow efficiency since using PDC’s Blood Temp 10 indicators at their hospital.
Improved quality control in blood transportation and storage since using PDC’s Blood Temp 10 indicators.

TechValidate Research on Laboratory Labels

Large Enterprise Health Care System Improves Quality Control Using PDC Healthcare’s Timestrip® Blood Temp 10 Indicators

Introduction

Challenges

Use Case

Results

Company Profile

About PDC’s Blood Temp 10 blood temperature indicator

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