CMCH blood bank installs device to monitor temperature

Coimbatore Medical College Hospital Deputy Medical Superintendent Isaac Christian Moses told The Hindu that the data logger device would ensure blood was stored safely under optimum conditions.

The Coimbatore Medical College Hospital’s (CMCH) blood bank has installed an electronic device that will monitor the temperature being maintained in all the equipment storing blood and the four components extracted from it. CMCH Deputy Medical Superintendent Isaac Christian Moses told The Hindu that the data logger device would ensure blood was stored safely under optimum conditions.

The temperature has to be carefully calibrated for various components.

A. Mangayarkarasi, Head, Department of CMCH Blood Bank, said that sensors had been installed in all the equipment.

The data logger would automatically record the temperature from these sensors every 15 minutes. It would provide the average high and low temperatures throughout the day along with the timings. This would help address the causes for temperature variations. The data logger was even capable of recording the temperature for every three seconds.

Earlier, the temperatures were ascertained through analogue graphs installed in the equipment and were checked only once an hour by a laboratory technician or a staff nurse. Under this system, it was not possible to ascertain fluctuations across the day.

While all equipment had inbuilt alarm systems that would go off when the temperature exceeded certain limits, she said that the average highs and lows could not be ascertained in the analogue graph system.

Power backup systems had been installed for all the blood storage equipment.

The data logger would also help ascertain the duration taken for power backup systems to come online after loss of power supply.