Single collection bag blood collection system, method and apparatus

1. A blood collection system in a collection configuration comprising:

a vascular access device for drawing blood from a donor or patient;

a blood collection container including a blood inlet and having opposed ends, one end of the container including a first blood component outlet and the opposed end of the container including a second blood component outlet;

a blood flow conduit extending between and in fluid communication with the access device and the blood inlet of then blood collection container, the blood collection container being free of attachment to other blood component collection containers receiving blood components from the collection container; and

a tubing loop separate from the fluid flow conduit and having one end in fluid communication with the flow conduit and another end in fluid communication with the interior of the blood collection container, the tubing loop extending between the flow conduit at one end and the blood collection container at the other end.

2. The blood collection system of claim 1 wherein the tubing loop has a first end in communication with the flow conduit and a second and open end terminating within the blood collection container at a location spaced from the one end of the container.

3. The blood collection system of claim 1 in which the blood collection container includes a radiofrequency identification device.

4. A method of collecting one or more blood components from whole blood in a collection container of whole blood, the collection container including a blood connection inlet and opposed ends, one end of the container including a first blood component outlet and the opposed end of the container including a second blood component outlet, a tubing loop separate from the fluid flow conduit and having one end in fluid communication with the flow conduit and another end in fluid communication with the interior of the blood collection container, the tubing loop extending between the flow conduit at the one end and the blood collection container at the other end, the blood collection container being free of attachment to other blood component collection containers during the collecting, the method including:

centrifuging the blood collection container sufficiently to separate the collected blood into at least a plasma component disposed toward the one end of the container and a concentrated red component disposed toward the other end of the container;

sterilely connecting a plasma collection subassembly including a plasma collection container in fluid communication with the first blood component outlets and/or a red cell collection subassembly including a red cell collection container with the second of the blood component outlets; and

expressing the plasma component and/or the concentrated red cell component from the collection container and into the respective subassembly.

5. The method of claim 4 including passing the concentrated red cell component into a processing container in the red cell collection subassembly, which processing container contains certain ingredients of a red blood cell preservative solution and then passing the concentrated red blood component and the certain ingredients into the red blood cell collection container containing other ingredients of the red cell preservative solution.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the red cell collection subassembly includes a leukocyte reduction filter located in a flow path between the processing container and collection container and the method further comprises wetting filter media of the leukocyte reduction filter with the other ingredients of the red cell preservative solution before passing the concentrated red cell component and certain ingredients through the leukocyte reduction filter.

7. The method of claim 4 including drawing blood from a donor and conveying it through the blood collection inlet into the collection container and thereafter sealing the inlet.

8. The method of claim 4 wherein the whole blood collection container includes data storage media and the method includes reading the data from the data storage media of the whole blood collection container and transferring at least part of that data to data storage media associated with the red cell collection container and the plasma collection container.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the data storage media comprises a label or a radiofrequency identification device.

10. The method of claim 4 including mixing certain ingredients of a red cell preservative solution contained in the red cell collection container with other ingredients of the red cell preservative solution contained in a separate container prior to introduction of red cells into the red cell collection container.

11. The method of claim 4 including filtering the red cells through a leukocyte reduction filter after the filter is wetted by at least a portion of a red cell preservative solution.