mollyredone

I even have that section bookmarked in our book. It can help explain a lot of reasons for a DAT to be positive.

So how long do you store the cord blood? How long are they good for refrigerated? Do you get cord bloods on all babies? We would like to quit performing ABO and DAT except for O moms and Rh neg moms, but have a sample as above in case the baby is jaundiced. Thanks!

Same with us. Then we have the bag if it needs to be cultured. Doesn't work for delayed reactions, but I would question the suitability of culturing a bag from several days ago.

We don't have bags returned to us. We take off 2 segments when we retype the units and save for a month, 1 week in each bag. It's easy to find by when it was retyped in the computer and there are only four small bags to check for the correct date.

We have Meditech Magic and we can scan the barcode for CMV negative and it is accepted.

David taught me this! We switched to gel for both IgG and complement DAT and use the buffered cards for complement and require QC with every patient test to verify that the anti-sera was actually added, using A2 cells and complement check cells.

As Eagle Eye said, check into low titer A plasma. We use it for all our massive transfusions and emergency release, in the form of liquid plasma. They have quite a few studies done (including over 8 years at Mayo) with using A instead of AB. And of course stress patient blood bank specimens ASAP. We actually quit carrying O plasma since it was outdating and use A instead. But we have very few "real" MTPs.

We have a form to fill out and usually have the tech repeat the test and comment on anything that might have caused the problem. PROFICIENCY REVIEW.docx This is a copy of our form.

Do you have Meditech? I saw a place I could print a list putting in specific antigen typings, but it prints one page for each antigen and blood type. Kind of tedious.

I understand what you're saying. It has happened here as well. But we also document unit status (CMV, HGB S and antigen typing) in our LIS, so it would be caught when the unit was being crossmatched. Do you not do that at your facility?

Our nurses use TAR. They scan all four barcodes, so they also scan the product code. We try not to crossmatch units that have the same DIN to the same patient.

Brenda, why do you need the unit number on the label? You are attaching the label to the unit, correct? We have red antigen positive labels and green antigen negative labels. We also document in the blood bank module that the unit is P/N for an antigen. That way if there is a label that comes off the unit, we can still see that the unit has been tested and verify it in our antigen testing log. I have found that attaching the label to a little bit of the whole unit label helps it stick on better.

Ditto what AmcCord and Tricore said. The medical director's name is on every result. If he/ she is unconcerned that is a very bad situation!

That's an awful situation! I have had to retrain several techs who made mistakes. How long do you usually train them? I would document everything he does wrong. Does your procedure state that you have to put your results in immediately? Ours does, since that is what CAP requires. What's worse is that your higher ups aren't alarmed by your observations. If he is not following procedure, or changing his actions based on what you have communicated to him, I would not sign him off as being competent.

We have Meditech Magic and I believe only "Super Techs" or supervisors can edit the BB specimen expiration. It's under Requisitions, LIS menu, and 29 "edit BBK specimen expiration. I don't do it often because we are a small hospital, but if the patient has been admitted for surgery and hasn't been transfused/pregnant in 3 months, and then needs blood, I will extend it for a couple of days. I have to admit I haven't tried it with EXM though. I'll have to try that.