For temperature-controlled storage equipment in the blood bank, it is important to activate the alarms on a regular basis. This quality control step supports the blood bank’s quality management system and helps ensure alarms are functioning properly.
i.Series® refrigerators, freezers, and platelet incubators from Helmer Scientific offer convenient alarm checks. The i.C3® Information Center incorporated into these devices includes automatic testing for high and low temperature alarms.
The automatic alarm test feature utilizes a Peltier self-test probe that heats the probe for a high alarm activation and cools it for a low-alarm activation. Only the tip of the probe is physically heated or cooled, testing the alarm system without affecting the temperature of the cabinet or the blood products stored inside.
An automatic alarm test is a more efficient process than a manual alarm test. Manually testing the alarms requires users to pull the probe out of the unit and warm it with water or cool it with an ice water slush. Automatic testing can save blood bank staff valuable time and effort.
The automatic alarm test also generates a record of the test along with the temperature at which the alarm activated. This supports compliance with the College of American Pathologists (CAP) Transfusion Medicine Checklist requirement TRM.42750. The intent of this requirement is to ensure laboratories can clearly show the temperature at which the alarm activated during a test.
When an automatic alarm test is performed, the i.C3® documents the alarm activation temperature in an electronic record which can be accessed in the storage unit’s Event Log. The Event Log can be downloaded and saved, providing a record of the alarm test and activation temperature.
The video below provides a demonstration of the i.C3® automatic alarm testing functionality.
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Helmer Scientific supports blood centers and hospitals, the patients they serve, and their efforts to keep the blood supply safe. We would like to express our gratitude to all staff involved in collecting, processing, and transfusing blood therapies to treat patients and save lives. We are here to help you properly store and monitor your blood products.
The i.C3® Information Center can help transfusion services and blood centers meet regulations for storing blood products. We have produced a series of videos to make it easy to learn more about the benefits of the i.C3® and gathered them on a single web page.
