Blood tests are (pardon the pun) bloody important. A lot of things have to be taken into account. Just take the logistics. How do you transport the blood tube from the hospital to the lab? Or rather: how do you keep the blood in optimal condition during transport? The current way of working is usually far from ideal. For chilled transport, hospitals or laboratories are dependent on external parties. This is a time-consuming and costly process. Fortunately, this can be done faster and cheaper! Read in this article about the simple solution for chilled transport of blood.
How to transport blood samples chilled from A to B
It is important to transport blood chilled or frozen. This keeps the risk of bacterial growth low. A freezer or refrigerator is ideal for this. But what if the blood has to be transported from one location to another? In that case, of course, you do not have a fridge at your disposal. However, there are several options for conditioned transport. All these options have advantages and disadvantages.
Refrigerator car
Conditioned transport often involves the use of refrigerated vehicles. This is basically a refrigerator on wheels, with some extra options. However, this option is not cost-effective for the transport of small units. You always pay the full price, regardless of the size of your load. The transport of blood, however, is characterised by small numbers. Tubes are transported in a box of up to 15 units at a time. It is therefore very inefficient to rent a refrigerator car for such small units.
Chilled shipping
Another option is the chilled sending of parcels. Delivery services often offer the possibility to deliver chilled parcels. This is a solution for small units such as blood tubes. However, this comes at a price. Chilled shipping is not cheap! Fortunately, there is a cheaper way. You can read about this in the next paragraph.
Gel packs: cheap and effective
Outsourcing chilled transport is expensive and time consuming. You can save a lot by taking matters into your own hands! This can be done very simply. All you need are gel packs and a freezer.
What are gel packs?
Gel packs are leak-proof polyethylene bags, filled with an innovative cooling gel. From these gel packs a strand is made. These gel packs have the same size as the standard used blood tubes. So this is a perfect match! In this way, the gel packs offer optimal protection for the sample. “False air” (which affects the temperature) gets no space this way. The sample remains optimally chilled or frozen.
Step by step protection
Gel packs have a simple user manual.
- Wrap the blood tubes in the gel packs.
- Put them in the freezer.
- Put the frozen gel packs in an EPS box. This insulating box is perfect for conditioned transport.
- Your cargo is ready for transport!
You can transport the EPS box yourself in your car or have it done by your staff. Do you have neither the time nor the capacity for this? Then you can also simply have the box delivered by mail. The normal delivery rates apply. So this is not expensive! You’d pay much more for the previously mentioned option of chilled delivery. However, with gel packs your blood samples travel cheaply from A to B. But even more important: the samples remain perfectly chilled throughout the entire transport. That is what you call bloody cool.
A solution for every challenge
Chilled transport is a craft. Each product requires a specific approach. This applies just as much to blood tubes as it does to medicine. However, there is a solution for every chilled transportation problem! De Ridder Packaging provides customised solutions. Do you have any questions? Or are you facing a chilled transportation challenge? Contact our experts! They will be more than happy to help you.
