AngiB

In our system the Transfuse order has to be placed in order to for the nurse to print a pick up slip. If there is a glitch in the print function we make them print a copy of the transfuse order and sign it the same as they do the pick up slip. If they order 2 units they can print 2 pick up slips. If they want more it is another transfuse order. We are an Epic site.

Awesome Cliff !!! Thanks !!

We have been using the Final Check system since last February/March. We used the BloodLoc system prior to the Final Check. We found the Final Check system easier to use and the transition for nursing was pretty easy. The RN's like it better. We have the RN return the transport bag with the bag tag inside it. We do not have them return the lock. We can then tell if the bag was tampered with. We are a system of 4 hospitals and by mid February we will all be using Final Check. We range from a large level 1 trauma center to a small community hospital.

We do not use the blood administration module but we do use the blood administration flowsheet. That has worked fairly well for us for documentation. We audit it for completeness. Actually nursing audits it. We have seen a significant improvement in the charting as time has gone by and people have become comfortable with it.

Must be the season. We had one that low a couple of days ago.

Our committee is multidisciplinary and physician attendance is poor at best. If I wasn't on the committee there would be no agenda or discussion topics. I set the agenda and our Medical Director defers to me to lead the meeting discussions except on a rare occasion. All case specific review is performed by the physician quality committee and if need be I am in invited guest to that meeting.

We are a Sunquest user interfaced with Epic and it works pretty well. There are some issues that have been more difficult to resolve but overall it is much better than what we had previously. It takes patience in the beginning. One of our nurses recently told a surveyor going live with Epic was a little like a pregnancy. For the first trimester you just want to puke and after that it starts getting better.

Bob - Thanks for all the information and insight you have shared with all of us. I don't post much but when I have been frustrated with issues it always seems everyone else has a similar frustration. I could always count on finding your input somewhere in a post that summed things up much more elequotenly than I could have done. Congratulations..... Angie Dayton, Ohio

Do you have any procedures where autologous blood is collected in the OR without using a cell saver? I have an anesthesiologist who found an article on the internet about Hemodilution and has concocted a plan to basically do his own thing. He made one critical error... he called me and asked for a donor bag or the "stuff" you put in the bag so it won't clot. Just curious if anyone has a process they use or if he truly was making it up as he went. Angie