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I digress, but in response to David's post, I had a resident bring a specimen for culture to the Microbiology department, where I was working part-time as a student, and he asked if he should wait for the results.

In what world do surgeons/anesthesia review charts prior to the surgery?

Of course, if this was in the US the OP would be Other Side of the Pondering ... I'll get my coat

And you said, Sure, pull up a chair!

Another issue with shortening the preop window is that, although we do sometimes have departmental tunnel vision, there are other lab tests to be performed and acted upon besides pretransfusion testing. The whole point of getting the blood work done many days ahead of time is to get the abnormal glucose, creatinine, H&H, coag etc. sorted out before the day of surgery - not just antibody problems. So there would be less time to deal with these potential problems as well.

We once received a letter that the patient said "was VERY important" if he ever needed transfusions. We had to call our interpreter service because the letter was all in German

The kind of people who tried to "write up" Scott and David should have their crayons taken away until they can learn to play nicely!...or, to put it another way, they should have their ability to try to ruin others' professional lives taken away until they actually have a clue about what they are talking - which, in the case of most such people, is a life sentence!

Goodchild, you hardened cynic - why that would be the one long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, where they don't thumb through the chart while the patient is getting prepped and say "Holy bleep! His INR's 7, his platelets are 6, his hemoglobin's 5, his glucose is 4........." Hey, I said that was the point, not that anyone did anything about it. But I LOLed too.

Recently we had a MTP that was intitiated in the ER. A physician there who should have known better called the BB to discuss why we couldn't get the initial cooler down there faster ("don't you have one sitting on the shelf ready to go?"). We apologized as we had to cut him off as we were a bit busy WITH THE MTP THAT HE INITIATED. So four of us are busy getting the next series of coolers ready (patient went to OR pretty quickly), and this doc has a PA from ER call up to discuss his issue with us again. We did have a manager nearby to talk to him for a minute, but then had to cut him off as well. Scott

My previous hospital did total overkill. A type and screen on every OB, a postnatal type and screen and fetal screen on every Rh neg mother. And a cord blood on every baby! So, the set up we have now is just peachy compared to that. ha

Do you think Antiques Road Show would have put the correct value on that one, Malcolm? (Sorry if that reference is a bit obscure to anyone who doesn't get the BBC)

We had one once that was sent in to us because it was getting a bit battered and bruised, and the lady wanted a new one. The original was signed by a certain Dr Ruth Sanger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In my experience you only "run" the blood when something very very critical is occurring. I've done it less than a handful of times in 40 yrs. I'd deal with the computer later (you can always back date/time - or should be able to). Can't let the pt exsanguinate for the paperwork.

We've been converting FFP to TP directly for some time now. All of our thawed units start with a 5-day outdate. Scott

Also, if you are handwriting the expiration date and time, you might consider converting directly from frozen FFP to Thawed Plasma. You will confuse the nurses greatly if you change the expiration date twice, with the last one being LATER than the previous one. Experience speaking here. It also save you from having to process the unit twice.