Gloria

Does anybody know if SoftBank has a way to verify labels?

We validate our Igloo Playmate coolers twice a year and we do it in the Blood Bank. On another note, I have recently heard that FDA considers coolers going to OR as storage and as such they have to be monitored every four hours. Has anyone else heard that? does that mean that coolers can only be out up to 4 hours unless they have some way of being monitored continuously? would we have to check on the blood every 4 hours if not? Since it is storage, does the blood also have to be maintained at 1-6C?

May I have copies too, thanks! junio59@yahoo.com

Human source ABO reagents have not been available in the US market for several years. Currently, there are reagents that are just a mixture of anti-A and anti-B, some that contain anti-A,B in addition to anti-A and anti-B and some that are actually anti-A,B. Check the direction insert of the reagent to find out which one you are using.

I have recently joined an institution that does electronic x-matches. Specimens for blood bank are witnessed by a second person that also verifies patient ID. If there is not a previous blood type on the patient a retype is done on the same sample; only after the second type is done are patients with no history of antibodies candidates for electronic crossmatching.

Testing the limits of the reagent would include testing it against cells with the weakest expression of the corresponding antigen, however, it would not include diluting the reagent since they are not routinely used diluted, doing so would be not following manufactures' directions.

I also worked with a very good blood bank pathologist who was not afraid to do things out of the ordinary and when it came to it, he always said: "halitosis is better than no breath"

Does anybody run a standard in parallel with the titer? Our procedure calls for running an in-house standard any time we do an antibody titer in addition to running the previous sample. Does anyone else do this?

Same here. We have a log book that techs are required to read each shift but do not have to sign. We also have a white board in the lab.

I don't think that has anything to do with product stability. I know for a fact that Immucor had problems in the past with hemolysis during summer months due to the heat. The cooler packs may just be their way of preventing that.

From what I understand it is the same manufacturer, but now they also have a distributor selling reverse cells, screening cells (two and three cells), Coombs control cells, the panel and a QC kit

I wish we could do that, but our supplier charges more for leukoreduced units, so it is not an option.

I have no idea, I am trying to get rid of that policy and not having much luck. It was implemented by the previous blood bank supervisor who now happens to be the lab director. :-(

We have been approached by a reagent red cell manufacturer called Medion diagnostics, their products are FDA approved and their pricing is better than Ortho's and Immucor's. I was told that they are the people from Dade. Is anyone familiar with them?

The transfusion service where I work sets up leucopoor units on females under 50 to prevent CMV. Is anyone else doing this?