Laboratory control procedures shall include:

(a) The establishment of scientifically sound and appropriate specifications, standards and test procedures to assure that blood and blood components are safe, pure, potent and effective.

(b) Adequate provisions for monitoring the reliability, accuracy, precision and performance of laboratory test procedures and instruments.

(c) Adequate identification and handling of all test samples so that they are accurately related to the specific unit of product being tested, or to its donor, or to the specific recipient, where applicable.

(a) Blood collection establishments and transfusion services must assure that the risk of bacterial contamination of platelets is adequately controlled using FDA approved or cleared devices or other adequate and appropriate methods found acceptable for this purpose by FDA.

(b) In the event that a blood collection establishment identifies platelets as bacterially contaminated, that establishment must not release for transfusion the product or any other component prepared from the same collection, and must take appropriate steps to identify the organism.

(c) In the event that a transfusion service identifies platelets as bacterially contaminated, the transfusion service must not release the product and must notify the blood collection establishment that provided the platelets. The transfusion service must take appropriate steps to identify the organism; these steps may include contracting with the collection establishment or a laboratory to identify the organism. The transfusion service must further notify the blood collection establishment either by providing information about the species of the contaminating organism when the transfusion service has been able to identify it, or by advising the blood collection establishment when the transfusion service has determined that the species cannot be identified.

(d) In the event that a contaminating organism is identified under paragraph (b) or (c) of this section, the collection establishment's responsible physician, as defined in § 630.3(i) of this chapter, must determine whether the contaminating organism is likely to be associated with a bacterial infection that is endogenous to the bloodstream of the donor, in accordance with a standard operating procedure developed under § 606.100(b)(22). This determination may not be further delegated.

[80 FR 29895, May 22, 2015]

Standard operating procedures for compatibility testing shall include the following:

(a) A method of collecting and identifying the blood samples of recipients to ensure positive identification.

(b) The use of fresh recipient serum or plasma samples less than 3 days old for all pretransfusion testing if the recipient has been pregnant or transfused within the previous 3 months.

(c) Procedures to demonstrate incompatibility between the donor's cell type and the recipient's serum or plasma type.

(d) A provision that, if the unit of donor's blood has not been screened by a method that will demonstrate agglutinating, coating and hemolytic antibodies, the recipient's cells shall be tested with the donor's serum (minor crossmatch) by a method that will so demonstrate.

(e) Procedures to expedite transfusion in life-threatening emergencies. Records of all such incidents shall be maintained, including complete documentation justifying the emergency action, which shall be signed by a physician.

[40 FR 53532, Nov. 18, 1975, as amended at 64 FR 45371, Aug. 19, 1999; 66 FR 1835, Jan. 10, 2001; 66 FR 40889, Aug. 6, 2001]