The Logging Room: Where it All Begins

Tuesday, 9/19/2017

Thousands of ounces of milk flow through Mothers’ Milk Bank of North Texas every week, so proper handling and organization in the office and lab is a must. Each deposit from each donor is carefully recorded and tracked all the way through processing and pasteurization, starting in the logging room.

The logging room is the beginning of the journey for donated human milk. This is where frozen donations are stored right when they arrive at the milk bank, whether from a depot or delivered directly from a donor. There are program assistants on staff at MMBNT who monitor this milk and ensure it is logged into the database, Timeless Medical Systems, correctly.

Each deposit of milk is organized according to its donor. Each donor has her own ID number in the Timeless database, and her profile includes her donation history and relevant health information. The program assistants also take note of the earliest and latest pump date in each deposit, as well as the volume of the deposit in ounces. All this information goes into Timeless, as well as on an index card stored with the deposit for easy identification.

The database also records the specific freezer where each deposit is stored. The logging room contains many freezers with dozens of deposits in each one, so recording the location in the database makes it easier to find a specific deposit. This particularly comes in handy for the lab staff, who at the end of the day gather all deposits that will be processed the next day.

With so many moving parts in the milk bank, organization is vital to everyday operations. This first step helps set up a smooth process for every ounce that enters our doors.