Through these short conversations, we try to understand what our customers think about us. Today, we are going to Bihor in Romania to speak with Dr Olivia Burta, Director of the Regional Blood Center Bihor County. The blood center handles around 1 000 – 1100 blood donations per month whole blood donations and platelet apheresis. The Blood center is one of the largest in the country.

1. Could you explain what your activities consist of?

We are the Blood Center Bihor County (Oradea) and our activities consist of blood donation, testing, processing, storage and expedition to the hospitals we serve and other blood centers we help. The collections are organized from Monday to Friday and from time to time, we organize mobile collection during the week-end.

We are processing the whole blood in a semi-automated way and we would like to start soon with an automated manner. The blood processed is only use for transfusion reason and go to patient.

2. Why is there a need for blood storage in your organization?

We are a Blood Center serving our county’s hospitals and the other Blood transfusion Centers, when needed. We have to make sure that the blood and its components are processed and stored properly following the national requirements, based on European regulations. The plasma should be frozen in a limited time frame and we use rapid freezer for that, when the number of collected plasma units, exceeds the capacity for using -80°C, for freeing purpose.

3. Which products did you buy from B Medical Systems? For which purpose?

We have one unit of contact shock freezer (CSF61), two units of -80°C (U Line), two units of Plasma Storage Freezers (F Line) and two units of Blood Bank refrigerators (B Line) for the storage of RBC.

4. What are the features that you like the most? Could you please talk about the performances of the devices?

The most interesting one is by far the CSF for its performance and the quality of the plasma that is contact-shock frozen but generally all Premium line safety and modern features are impressive. We had to accommodate the room to place the Contact Shock freezer but it’s ok as the device is very efficient and it’s a huge step ahead for our organization.

We have a national schedule in which each blood center has to send to the Reference Laboratory – National Institute for Blood Transfusion, a certain number of samples of each type of components. The institute follows a defined procedure to perform some tests on the quality of the components and send feedback to the different blood centers.

We also benefit from the remote monitoring systems that is connected to each of our devices and track the temperature. We receive report about the activity of our devices periodically and this is really important for us.

5. How are you using the B Medical Systems product and how does it benefit your institution?

We are doing maximum 2 cycles with the contact shock freezer per day according to the number of the blood donors and the collected units of plasma. The two independent plates of the CSF are very useful to us as we have different volumes of bags, it helps to maintain the uniformity of the freezing. The average blood bag capacity in Romania is 220-250ml, obtained from Total blood donation.

We are freezing the plasma following the EDQM rules and the national regulations which say it should be totally frozen within 1 hour.

6. Have you found in B Medical Systems a trustworthy partner?

Yes we did as their local partner Chrono Trade Medical acts fast and professional when needed.

7. How did you learn about B Medical Systems?

Through the national tender organized at the Institute.

8. How long have you been a B Medical Systems customer?

This is the 3^rd year so since 2020.

9. Are you satisfied with the equipment?

Generally yes.

10. Would you recommend B Medical Systems?

Yes. As the procurement of the equipment has been done via a national tender, practically all the blood transfusion centers in Romania possess these devices. All our network is equipped with the same materials which make it easier if we have a problem or if we want to share information, to improve the management of storage spaces.

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