Environmental controls protect blood supply

Staff -- Control Engineering, 10/1/2006

The Indiana Blood Center, a non-profit agency that collects and distributes blood and blood components throughout Indiana, is taking steps to ensure its blood and platelet supplies are stored according to U.S. FDA 21 CFR Part 11. The center has selected Trane to update its FDA monitoring system at seven remote sites and the main headquarters in downtown Indianapolis; Trane’s Tracer Summit critical control system will track and control the environment and monitor the refrigerators and freezers. Embedded devices monitor temperature to ensure the platelet supply is kept at the correct, constant temperature and record movement of the agitators. Monitoring and alarming of the remote sites is being done by workstations located at the main headquarters via communication over the Indiana Blood Center’s existing wide area network.

Search CFR Part 11 atop www.controleng.com for related articles. www.trane.com