Baby Banker

I have a lot of experience with SafeTrace, and some with Cerner. I much prefer SafeTrace. I did like the Cerner reports better than SafeTrace. When I was at a Cerner facility the staff used to issue expired blood all the time. Right before I left Cerner removed the label confirmation after modification requirement. I will say that I was told that the facility I was in used Cerner differently than other facilities. I think the best blood bank software is Mediware's HCLL. They are now Wellsky, I think. The more complex the service you provide, the less I would trust Cerner. Having said that, a great deal of how useful a system is depends on decisions the user makes when setting it up. SafeTrace does take both parts of its name seriously, and because of that it has a lot of hard stops. Many times this can frustrate staff level users.

If kernicterus is a consideration, you might want to dilute your RBC unit for the first exchange with albumin.

I have a lot of experience with SafeTrace, and some with Cerner. I much prefer SafeTrace. I did like the Cerner reports better than SafeTrace. When I was at a Cerner facility the staff used to issue expired blood all the time. Right before I left Cerner removed the label confirmation after modification requirement. I will say that I was told that the facility I was in used Cerner differently than other facilities. I think the best blood bank software is Mediware's HCLL. They are now Wellsky, I think.

This is one of those things that make me glad I don't do inspections any longer.

We are CAP, AABB, Joint Commission, and FDA inspected. I feel that AABB prepares you for FDA better than the others. I'm not talking about only the assessment process, but the total package of AABB membership.

I work in pediatrics where we cannot assume a common size for our patients. Also, we are frequently trying to bring the percentage of Hb S down.

We use CMV seronegative blood for stem cell transplant patients who are CMV neg their donor is CMV negative. Other than that we use CMV safe. We are a pediatric facility with heart, liver, renal, stem cell, transplants. The services that use the most blood here are CV, Heme/Onc, and neonates. We used to insist on CMV negative components, but we found that doing so delayed transfusions while we were trying to find seronegative unis.

We use clear zip lock bags and we fold the product ID tag around the unit so that none of the information on the tag is visible. We used to use Biohazard bags, but someone pointed out that the patient or patient's family might think that we are giving them units with positive viral markers. When we release multiple units at one time, they go in a validated thermal container. Either way the unit and patient information are out of sight during transport.

We don't give blood from sickle trait donors to sickle cell patients. We are usually trying to bring the patient's % of HbS down, and using sickle trait blood will not do that as efficiently as sickle negative. We do a lot of these transfusions, and have done for many years. So, requirement? Not of which I am aware. Our workflow? definitely.

I avoid giving O Pos to male trauma patients because if we give them an anti-D and they manage to show up as a trauma patient in the future, they are at grave risk of a serious reaction. I would note though that since I am in a pediatric institution, this is more likely to occur than in a general hospital. Thankfully, we have never been faced with having to use O pos for a female patient. There is usually not much delay in getting a sample; we generally go to type specific pretty quickly.

I avoid giving O Pos to male trauma patients because if we give them an anti-D and they manage to show up as a trauma patient in the future, they are at grave risk of a serious reaction. I would note though that since I am in a pediatric institution, this is more likely to occur than in a general hospital.

I use my Validation Environment.

I use the FIN for my facility, the year, and a random number. I make a label using the stand alone HemaTrax software.

How old is this patient? Newborns and geriatric patients may have weakened cell typing reactions.

It is my understanding that if you use a computer system that is validated and has been set up with logic to recognize valid typing reactions (and reject others) that you meet this requirement.