POC lab infection control

Hi Miranda,
Our hospital has a Corrugated Cardboard policy that I have struggled with on the laboratory and POC side. The compromise that we came to was to do a risk assessment for those items that come into our lab/POCC areas and can not be removed from their cardboard (ie reagent cubes). We established what could or could not be stored in cardboard based on: if the box came in another exterior shipping box that could be removed and recycled, if the box was covered in a plastic overlay (shrink wrapped), if the box contained pertinent information (lot numbers, exp dates ect), turn over of the product, if the item in the box required the support of the box. This satisfied our Environment of Care committee and set some appropriate boundaries for our programs use of cardboard for storage.

We faced this same issue once before. My understanding is that the packaging for hematology reagents are FDA approved. Removing from the supplied packaging might alter the approval. The goal is to inhibit vermin infestation. Take other measures to address the expressed issue. Removing components from the approved packaging creates additional issues and does not directly address the issue of vermin entering what is supposed to be a controlled space.

Our Environment of Care and Dept. of Epidemiology/Infection Control mandate similarly, if not exactly, as described by Michelle. The 'corrugated/exterior box' coming off also plays into storage in areas that have limited space and need to store mixed supplies (clean vs sterile vs has exterior box that should stay on for safety/regulation adherence sake). 

There are also medical/clinical supplies that fall into what we experience in POCT packaging/shipment boxes.

As usual in clinical areas, to get a solution, it seems to take an interdisciplinary approach.