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I'm not concerned with how full the tubes are as long as I have enough specimen to work with for required tests. I would reject an expired tube unless it was some kind of emergency situation that pretty much prevented redraw. And if I did make an exception, it would be as a deviation from SOP that would require an explanation as to why the tube was used and a signature from the BB medical director.

Quality in the Blood Transfusion Laboratory is key in all things. The wrong can, and does kill. If there is an expiry date on the EDTA tubes, it must be there for a reason. I am not an expert on how this date is established, but I would suggest that someone within the manufacturing company is, and it is they who have established the date. Were I inspecting the laboratory and saw that expired tubes were being accepted, whatever the excuse put forward, it would be an immediate non-conformance.

I was also thinking about 'why not drop the unit retesting' after all of the donor centers went to computerized donor labeling/retesting and I hadn't seen a labeling error in years (you did use to see a very few go by) and then realized that with so many places going to computerized "compatible unit release" - the retesting done by the receiving facility is the only chance they get to check that the RBCs in the unit do indeed match the label on the bag. Without, at least, an Immediate Spin crossmatch check of the unit vs. the pt - there would be NO other physical check done if unit retesting was dropped. So there we go, the inspection agencies will want the unit recheck for forever! If the UK's figures were studied and accepted by the FDA/CMS/AABB, etc. - we might eventually see a change, but it probably won't be soon. (my 2 cents )

The requirement to perform a donor retype also plays into whether or not the LIS is used for electronic compatibility testing. AABB 5.16.2.4 The system contains logic to alert the user to discrepancies between the donor ABO group and Rh type on the unit label and those determined by blood group confirmatory tests and to ABO incompatibility between the recipient and the donor unit. * *FDA Guidance for Industry: Computer Crossmatch"

The package insert for the control says to use the same test method that is used for the reagent being 'controlled'. If you use 2 drops of anti-D, you should use 2 drops of control.