Blood Storage Equipment Management: MU / Tolerance Settings
[SIZE=3][FONT=arial]I’m writing some guidance on equipment management, and fridge temperature settings and alarm points seems to be an issue across pathology, and I would appreciate some help particularly as MU (Measurement Uncertainty) the term used by UKAS is causing confusion and a lot of unnecessary time spent trying to address this-and it would be useful for us all to get it right.
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[SIZE=3][FONT=arial]So please comment on the following points: - are these assumptions correct/ incorrect/ overkill?
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[SIZE=3][FONT=arial]1.MU (Measurement Uncertainty- term used by UKAS) = Tolerance (term used by MHRA inspectors) = Error or variation to the actual temperature value. So therefore the same thing?[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][FONT=arial]2. For blood storage equipment the final tolerance (MU, which can be found on the calibration certificates) should be no greater than 0.5’C to the primary calibrating equipment (traceable thermocouple) - the equipment used to calibrate the engineers testing probes (so add the MU between thermocouple to engineers equipment and then the MU between engineers equipment and your temp probes= no greater than 0.5’C) ?[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][FONT=arial]3.The MU of the temperature monitoring/ alert probes is used to determine the alarm settings for the fridges etc.- so, if the final MU is 0.36’C (round this up to 0.5'C), then the blood fridge CORE temperature alarm would be set min: 2.5’C and Max: 5.5 ‘C instead of 2'C to 6'C ( with no alarm delay ) . Similarly, the AIR temp alarm would be set Min: 2.5’C and Max: 7.5’C instead of 2'C to 8'C and a suitable/ justified delay set to prevent false alerts caused by routine opening/ re-stocking. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][FONT=arial]4. I don’t know if anyone else has this issue- but after receiving calibration reports and certificates I usually have to contact the company to provide the certificate for the equipment used to calibrate the engineers probes- am I doing this right shouldn't this be routinely provided or is there an easier way?
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[SIZE=3][FONT=arial]There are so many other equipment issues I would like to discuss so perhaps we could use this thread to include these- particularly:[/FONT][/SIZE]
[LIST][*][SIZE=3][FONT=arial]Temperature mapping and position of monitoring probes[/FONT][/SIZE] [*][SIZE=3][FONT=arial]Fixing probes inside equipment/ cold rooms etc[/FONT][/SIZE] [*][SIZE=3][FONT=arial]Reviewing mapping reports and calibration certificates[/FONT][/SIZE] [*][SIZE=3][FONT=arial]Managing temperature excursions outside of routine hours- particularly with wireless monitoring equipment ........ and lots of other things!!!:eek::eek::eek: [/FONT][/SIZE] [/LIST]
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[/FONT][/SIZE][SIZE=3][FONT=arial]Many thanks,
Rashmi[/FONT][/SIZE]