Disaster management in clinical laboratories and blood banks

Fahri Yüce Ayhan

doi:10.1071/MA23055

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Disaster management in clinical laboratories and blood banks

Fahri Yüce Ayhan ^A ^*

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Medical Microbiology Laboratory, Dr Behҫet Uz Paediatric Diseases and Surgery Training and Research Hospital, Health Sciences University, İsmet Kaptan District, Sezer Doḡan Street 11 Konak, Izmir, Türkiye.

Dr F. Yüce Ayhan (MD) is a medical microbiology specialist with a PhD in blood banking and transfusion medicine. In his present position, he is the head of the medical microbiology laboratory and director of the transfusion center at Dr Behҫet Uz Children’s Training & Research Hospital (İzmir, Türkiye). He has served as secretary general for the İzmir Branch of the Turkish Red Crescent Society and was involved in disaster preparedness and first aid training between 2003 and 2012.

^* Correspondence to: yayhan@yahoo.com

Microbiology Australia 44(4) 190-192 https://doi.org/10.1071/MA23055

Submitted: 17 September 2023 Accepted: 5 October 2023 Published: 31 October 2023

© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the ASM. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

The challenge of disaster management in healthcare facilities is dealing with the incident’s consequences and maintaining regular operations. Diagnostic and clinical microbiology laboratories have a critical role in the early diagnosis of causative agents of infectious diseases that could spread rapidly in the community and lead to outbreaks. Blood banks are also crucial to maintain the blood supply chain and to cope with the raised demand for blood components because of disaster-related injuries. It is thus necessary to prepare emergency plans, including step-by-step action plans for various disaster scenarios. Even though inconvenient conditions exist during disasters, biosafety and biosecurity precautions still apply, as well as quality control requirements in diagnostic and clinical laboratories and blood banks.

Keywords: blood bank, diagnostic and clinical laboratory, disaster management, disaster preparedness, emergency plan.

Biographies

Dr F. Yüce Ayhan (MD) is a medical microbiology specialist with a PhD in blood banking and transfusion medicine. In his present position, he is the head of the medical microbiology laboratory and director of the transfusion center at Dr Behҫet Uz Children’s Training & Research Hospital (İzmir, Türkiye). He has served as secretary general for the İzmir Branch of the Turkish Red Crescent Society and was involved in disaster preparedness and first aid training between 2003 and 2012.

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