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April 2024 Challenge

swede

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Everything posted by swede

  1. swede
    I want to add that we do keep the float techs fully competent and they do complete the same competencies as the regular blood bank techs. They are required to work in the blood bank 4 days a month to keep their skills up. We give them a lot of practice on the above tasks because that is what they will be needed for when we call for help.
  2. swede
    Float techs in our blood bank can check-in blood products, run the ProVue, and issue blood products. They usually are not responsible for antibody ID and Kleihauer-Betke testing. When we need help in an emergency, it is usually with checking in more products or issuing routine products while the regular staff takes care of the trauma.
  3. swede
    We retype for FFP on each admission.
  4. swede
    Well said, that is exactly what I wanted to say and you said it so much better, thank you!
  5. swede
    We also have MLTs in our lab, but all are ASCP, we do not have "education equivalent to" and that is where we were getting upset that CAP was dropping certification and making it seem like any 2 year degree in a science was acceptable. We have wonderful MLTs and they do the same job as our MTs.
  6. swede
    Thank you, Aakupaku and Anorris......we did have a discussion on this one at our facility. We were very disappointed in the rewording of this standard. Our lab only hires MT(ASCP) techs and we have always cited this standard to human resources. HR does not understand the profession of laboratory science and seems to think they know best when it comes to hiring practices; this standard has always helped us keep up the high standards that our laboratory has worked hard to maintain.
  7. swede
    We are CAP, but I am at home and do not have access to the checklist right now.....so don't know what the standard is you are looking at.
  8. swede
    We got our full shipment on Friday (only 2 days late).....with a letter in one of the giant boxes stating that our shipment might be delayed due to the hurricane! Might have made more sense to send the letter under separate cover!
  9. swede
    We also have a separate tube that we control. We go a step futher and put a strip of parafilm around the cap so they can't pull it off and pour over a previously drawn tube (yes, they were collecting extra and saving it for the confirm). Nursing draws all lab work at our facility.....
  10. swede
    We do the same. We are on Client Server 5.65
  11. swede
    Unfortunately this doctor only wants to send to his favorite lab, period. He wants us to have our own titer results compared to the outcome of his patients. He agreed that we would never have enough data of our own! We will do correlations with the reference lab, find out their "critical titer" and then approach him again.
  12. swede
    Yeah, That's what we keep telling the head of the Maternal/fetal clinic. He says we have to do our own studies and create our own critical titer based on patient and baby outcomes. We keep telling him that we follow AABB guidelines that were established from years of data. I am happy to hear that we are on the same page as everyone else.
  13. swede
    We have been doing antibody titration forever, but a doctor will not use our lab because we do not have critical values for our lab based on patient outcome. We have always used 32 for anti-D and 8 for anti-Kell based on the tech manual. What does everyone else do? We have so few patients to base a critical value on, that it seems futile. Would it make sense to do correlation between our lab values and the current reference lab values. Then if we correlate with their values, use their critical value as ours? Hope this makes sense! Thank you!
  14. swede
    We are not allowed to use thumb drives in our facility, so we continue to use CDs.
  15. swede
    We call ours OSBOS (optimal surgical blood order schedule). We didn't like the word maximum either!
  16. swede
    We have a heelstick specimen drawn on the baby and type the baby. Usually the DAT is negative on the heelstick and we get an accurate D type.
  17. swede
    Ha Ha, so true. Luckily we have some folks at the top right now that seem to understand the importance of good equipment in the blood bank. We finally have equipment that isn't constantly needing repairs and tweaks. It only took me 5 years to convince them that I needed a platelet incubator, once I got that, they started upgrading a little every year. Hope I didn't just jinx myself!
  18. swede
    We use both of our Helmers at the same time....so neither one is designated "back up". If one were to go down, the other is already up and ready to go. The peace of mind of having an extra thawer is worth the price.
  19. swede
    We have 2 Helmer 8 plasma thawers. Kind of spendy, but reliable. They also make 4 and 2 "slot" thawers.
  20. swede
    agree....Helmer is the best. We have 2 Helmer 8 units and have had no problems.
  21. swede
    Yes, We have a system of cups for future specimens and racks for current date. The cups are labeled Monday thru Friday. After a pre-surgical specimen is tested, we put it in a cup for the day of the week that the surgery is going to take place (so if the 15th is a Wednesday, it goes in the Wed cup). We receive a tentative surgery schedule every day for the following day. We go thru it to see which patients need blood bank testing (based on our OSBOS). We find it in the cup and move it to our "daily" specimen rack. The racks are saved for about 12 days (based on refrigerator space) so we will have the specimen for at least a week after transfusion. The cups are about 4 inches square and the racks hold 24 specimens (each day we fill one or two racks, three is a rarity). It may sound complicated, but it really it isn't. It works for us.
  22. swede
    We extend for 21 days. We do the type and screen on the day it is drawn, but we have validated the testing to be done on 21 day old specimens if orders are changed from hold only to type and screen. We go by the same rules as above for pregnancy and transfusion.
  23. swede
    We don't physically have the specimen in hand with our electronic crossmatch. But we do make sure the specimen is available. It must be available for 7 days past the transfusion in case of reaction. If we couldn't find the specimen, we would have the patient redrawn.
  24. swede
    Labgirl, I have not written any papers, but we do use the ancient technique in our lab occasionally. It was recommended to us by our reference lab. We use it when we are getting what appears to be a warm auto antibody in ortho gel. We have "uncovered" a couple of anti-E and an anti-K by using the saline "enhancement"/anti-IgG technique. I works for us, and we have not used autoabsorption in quite some time. Try it.....you might like it.....
  25. swede
    We did not reduce our number of techs, we are just able to utilize our tech time better now with the ProVue....we were at the point of needing to ask for another tech (which with budget constraints we never would have been able to have one!). We were able to work out a "reagent rental" agreement with Ortho for our Provue, much like chemistry and hematology do with getting new equipment upgrades all the time. We also would not have been able to purchase the ProVue outright. I agree tubes are quicker, and we do use them when necessary for a trauma or other emergent case.
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