[Blood donors and HIPAA]

We don't apply HIPAA to our donors. When asked how HIPAA applies to our donor center, we point out that donors are not patients and that we follow FDA regulations pertaining to donor confidentiality instead of HIPAA.

BC

[Anti A,B usefulness]

We use anti-A,B for retyping O units.

BC

[Hello wizard Bloodbankers!]

You can do it! Older folks make the best students- we aren't looking all week for a date for Friday night! I completed my first degree at age 41, my second at age 49, and my third at age 54. I am trying to decide what degree to work on next.

Have you considered an on-line SBB program? I have 4 techs who have done that. Their professor ships them specimens to work on.

Bob C

[Greetings from Winona, Minnesota]

Urinalysis and Blood Bank- what a great way to detect hemolytic transfusion reactions! The Generalist tech has a much harder job trying to stay current than those of us who are dedicated to blood banking. Been there- done that. One thing you can do is subscribe to as many automatic update services as you can. I subscribe to several free FDA email publications, so I know immediately when a new guidance is issued or when there are industry recalls, etc. Also, AABB has several different publications to keep you up-to-date. I recommend the AABB Weekly Report, which the AABB will send you a link to each Friday of publication. You can also access it on their website as long as you are a member (institutional or individual). The AABB has a publication called the CFR Mini-Handbook ($100 for members, $120 for non-members) that is an excellent way to keep current with the federal regulations relating to blood banking, transfusion medicine, and cellular therapy (21 CFR Parts 210, 211, 600, 601, 606, 607, 610, 630, 640, 660, 820, 1270, 1271, as well as 42 CFR 493). Good luck!

Bob Currie, MT(ASCP)

QA Officer

Scott & White Blood Center

Temple, TX

[Howdy from Texas]

Thanks, John. I will try not to ramble incoherently on this site as much as I usually do.

BC

[Aliquoted Pack RBC's]

For us, first person takes the hit on the unit, and the others are only charged an aliquot fee. We wrestled with this for quite a while, too. We deliver about 600 babies a month (including many premies), so we rarely discard blood. We make our own neonatal units. We have dedicated O neg donors for our neonatal units. We collect into AS-5 bags but don't add the AS solution, classify the packed cells as neonatal units, then put them into general inventory 6 days after collection. The units have a 21-day outdate since they have no AS solution added.

BC

[Howdy from Texas]

Just joined recently. I am always looking for new information in the blood banking industry. I am QA officer for a moderately sized combination donor center and transfusion service. This is my second career. I was a locomotive engineer for Missouri Pacific RR running high speed freight and passenger trains between Houston and New Orleans for 21 years. I retired in 1990, and obtained my BS in Medical Technology in 1992. I have been a bench technologist, lab director, and now QA officer. I also graduated from law school in 2005, and I still run passenger excursion trains on weekends in the Austin, TX area over 167 miles of track through the Central Texas hill Country. Besides that, I am a captain in the Texas State Guard, and have participated in military missions running field hospitals during Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, and down in the Texas Lower Rio Grand Valley on the Texas-Mexico border. Finally, I am a specialist in hazardous materials decontamination, and I am head of my hospital's hazmat decontamination team, as well as a member of a military hazardous materials decontamination team. Other than all that, I just sit around the house doing nothing

CPT Robert Currie, JD, MBA, MT(ASCP) (AKA QA Bob)

[Aliquoted Pack RBC's]

We used the Circular of Information (July 2002) to calculate the required amount for a unit of RBCs. See page 14 at the very bottom, continued on page 15 at the top of the page: "Red Blood Cells may contain from 160-275 mL of red cells (50-80 g of hemoglobin) suspended in varying quantities of residual plasma." We took that minimum volume, 160 mL, and added the 100 mL of AS solution we add to our RBC units to come up with the magic number 260 mL for our units to be considered sufficient to produce the required 50 g of hemoglobin. You can do a similar calculation with your own components. Alternatively, you can request permission from the ordering physician to issue a unit with less than the required amount. We have done that in the past to save a unit. Most physicians have been willing to transfuse less than a whole unit whenever the unit is close to the minimum requirement.

Bob Currie, MT