richardsonj

Hello. We currently have an array of Helmer products throughout our lab, refrigerators, freezers, cell washer, plasma thawing unit, platelet incubator. I am very happy with each of these pieces of equipment. I will be looking for a new plasma freezer in the near future and our new bio-med guy is dead against getting another Helmer product. He wants only Follett. I of course would buy another Helmer due to the reputation we have seen (and besides, then they would all match! ) Any feedback comparing the two would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!!!

We use the same as BBK710. I have two of them in each refrigerator, one upper and one lower. We check them against the internal iCenter of our Helmer frig. The are usually within 0.5 of each other.

We use Bloodloc also. We require the nurses to send us back down the bag, lock and blood ID tag for each unit. That way we have proof that they didn't cut the bag open. I have only received one bag down that was RIPPED open. When I questioned the nurse, they said they forgot and ripped it open then remembered and then used the code to open the lock. The lock was opened when sent down and they did not try to hide it so I guess I have to believe it. ;/

We recently set up our Echo analyzer in 2010. When they were here teaching us, the technicians told us we needed to have a check method on our AHG crossmatches because solid phase "may not" detect an ABO incompatibility. They quoted the AABB technical manaul. This information can be found on page 453 (16th edition) under Antiglobulin Crossmatch in the first paragraph. "Although tube and column agglutination AHG crossmatches will also detect ABO incompatibility, the AHG crossmatch in solid phase may not. An additional procedure is required to verigy ABO compatibility, such as the IS or computer crossmatch." Since we do not have the electronic crossmatch, we do an IS with every AHG crossmatch performed on our Echo analyzer.

We do them here at our hospital. We have specially trained phlebotomists who perform the actual phlebotomy but it is under the direction of the Transfusion Service.

Hi. We just went live with our Echo on May 10, 2010. We use the Anti-D series 4 and 5. We use the same reagents on the Echo and on the bench. We do use both anti-D antisera on the bench as well as on the Echo for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to keep everything consistent so the techs didn't have to think about which reagents to use. This is important for the generalists on the evening and night shifts. Also, when I built the tests into our LIS, I built the calculations to include both antisera. That way we only have one "type" calculation in our LIS. Lastly, for me it kept the ordering of reagents more consitent. For the validation, since we were using different typing sera prior to the Echo, I validated the Echo first against our current reagents and then validated the Echo to the new type reagents.

Thank you AMcCord. Do you have a policy or procedure that you are willing to share that deals with this scenario or something close? Thank you all for your help!

I am from a small community hospital with no neonatologists. I have worked here for 13 years and have never given out blood for a baby, however we do have a policy to give o negative (freshest available) out if needed. My question is how do we issue this blood? Do we just give the whole unit to the ambulance staff? If we had a baby in distress here at this hospital, we would be shipping it immediately. There is 99.9% chance this scenario would never happen, but it is the 0.1% chance that scares me to death. Could anyone give me some direction on this subject? Thanks a bunch!

[quote= Rhogam will not be detected after few weeks of last dose. We have picked up Rhogam as far as three months after the last dose using gel or solid phase technology. We do full crossmatches on those patient's due to the positive antibody screen. For one, you are not sure that it IS actually from Rhogam and two, it is easier to have a consistent protocol.

I would like to get this forum's opinion regarding autocontrols and/or DAT. Currently, when we get a positive antibody screen, we then run a panel with an autocontrol. If the autocontrol is then positive, we then do a full DAT (poly, IgG and Comp). If the IgG portion of the DAT is positive, we then perform an eluate if the patient has been transfused in the past 30 days. We just obtained the Immucor Echo analyzer. We were told the Echo does not do an autocontrol and we would have to do a DAT. We have determined that we could still do the autocontrol and run in as a XM with the patient's cells and plasma or do the DAT as recommended by Immucor. So, my question to you all is... What do you do and why? Thank you all for your responses! This forum is invaluable!

We have had this same problem...running out of the donor cell due to multiple people doing antigen types on the bottle. I like the idea the mcgouc presents...thank you.

We have 2 very ancient dry block incubators for tube incubation, which thankfully still work, however, I need to put in our budget for new ones in case they decide to CTB. Has anyone purchased one lately and can recommend a particular one or manufacturer? Thank you for your responses!

Amen!!!

Hi. We just signed a contract for the Immucor Echo and manual capture workstation. I was told to have unbuffered saline available to make into PBS with Immucor's pHix reagent. I am trying to get a handle on the different salines... Currently we use Nerl Blood Bank Saline pH 7.0-7.2 which I was under the assumption was a phosphate buffered saline... However, to comply with Immucor's request for installation, I purchased S/P Certified Blood Bank Saline from Cardinal Health to add the pHix to. So now...do I use the S/P Certified saline for everything else in the blood bank and add pHix to a cube for the Capture and Echo and only buy one kind of saline...OR....do I keep the Nerl Saline for everything else and buy the S/P Saline for Capture/Echo? What is everybody elso doing? Thanks for your help!

Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year! Santa will be bringing us a shiny new Echo for Christmas!