Receipt of Blood Components

Assessment of Blood Components upon receipt at the hospital blood transfusion service is essential to safe transfusion practice.

All boxes shipped from Canadian Blood Services have a tamper-proof seal attached to the belt on the shipping box. If the tamper-proof seal is missing, the supplier should be contacted immediately for instructions. Usually, the Product Distribution department staff at Canadian Blood Services will advise hospitals to discard the products contained in the box.

A visual inspection of each product received should take place as well as careful comparison of the product with the packing slip or issue voucher. If there are any discrepancies found, the supplier should be contacted immediately.

CSA Standard Z902-04, Blood and Blood Components stipulates that whole blood and blood components must be visually inspected immediately before they are issued into inventory and the results of this inspection must be documented. (Note: this reference only provides basic guidance; users should refer to the standard for full requirements for receipt and issuing of blood and blood components.)

Whole Blood and blood components must not be issued if leakage or microbial contamination is suspected.

Time-Sensitive Requirements

Blood components should be unpacked and stored appropriately as soon as possible after arriving at the hospital, and must be received within 24 hours after issue from the blood supplier or alternative source.

The receiving process must ensure that components are not outside the temperature-controlled environment longer than 30 minutes (i.e., from the time the shipping container is opened until the components are stored in their final storage location).

Guidelines for Receipt of Blood Products

It is extremely important that accurate records of receipt and disposition of blood products be kept, as all blood products are subject to “product recall” or look back/traceback processes.

1. Ensure that all issue vouchers and packing slips are correct by comparing the information on the vouchers and packing slips with the type and product received.
   - All products identified by lot number (i.e., fractionated plasma derivatives) must have the lot number recorded when received, issued, returned, or discarded.
   - All components identified by a unit number (i.e., blood component units) must have the unit number, including the check digit and centre (source) code recorded when received, issued, returned, or discarded.
2. Perform a visual inspection of all incoming products.
3. Guidelines for record retention of issue vouchers require that all records relating to blood products be retained indefinitely.
4. Return all boxes, ice and gel packs to blood supplier, as soon as possible after receipt.

CSA standards require that hospital personnel verify and sign all shipping documents. Therefore hospital staff must:

• Verify and sign and date shipping documents (packing slips).
  For fractionation products only, a copy of the signed packing slip is returned to Canadian Blood Services.
• Verify the waybill of all shipments, if applicable.
• Notify the Distribution/Product Management department at Canadian Blood Services of any product, shipping, order or packaging errors.