Ardele

My busy transfusion service is inquiring as to what other facilities do for QC? We have recently been using the corQC kit from Immucor. There are some who think all phases of the antibody screen (IS, 37, Coombs, and Check Cells) need to documented. The product insert specifies adding potentiator, incubating for 15-20 minutes at 36-38 C, washing, adding Coombs serum, grade and record results. Just wondering what others do who may be using the same product or doing QC another way. Thanks.

We use 3 days for all specimens. Although, we have surgeons questioning this and wondering the reason why. Plus, the old time-y techs here have heart attacks when the issue is even talked about to extend the 72-hour 'rule.'

There is not a lawsuit - yet. Both companies, Ortho and Immucor, have both been asked for documentation dating to September 2000. The information I received came from Bloomberg.com. I believe the reason Immucor has been mentioned and not Ortho is because Immucor only does Blood Bank. Ortho Clinical does much more than BB. And the BB part of Ortho only makes up less than 3% of their annual sales. Immucor, of course, would be 100% of their sales. So, the fact that the Justice Department is looking into "possible violations of the fedral criminal antitrust laws in the blood bank reagents industry" and no one knows for sure the scope of things; labeling this as a lawsuit is very premature. Some people have said it may not be worth it......

Re-typing from the same tube is just going to verify an error - if an error occured. You will not prevent "wrong blood in tube" At my facility, we are having two people do patient verification and both sets of mnemonics on the tube and in the LIS. We 'ran' this by CAP for this TRM.30550 and received their okay in meeting this requirement. Two people signing the tube may be two phlebotomists, a phlebotomist and nurse, a nurse and anethesiologist from the OR, etc. We have had good compliance with the two signatures, especially after rejecting a specimen without 2 sets of mnemonics.

We just do a quick back type on the patient if more units are added on at a later date and the tube is within the 72-hour time limit. And yes it is documneted. We only do DATs and autos for 'problem' patients: + antibody screen workups, colds, etc We are a 220-bed hospital, issuing about 250 units of red cells a month.

So, does anyone out there have any "rules" on when to do the Fetal Screen? I know about after delivery of an Rh-positive baby to an Rh-negative mom; but what about other cases? Say an emergency room patient who mis-carries at 20 weeks? Do you do a fetal screen on her? When do you do it and when not? Are there specific recommendations any one knows of? Thanks.

I think what the Standard is referring to is a system such as bar wanding the patient's band and then the unit - with the unit label having a bar code that matches the patient's bar code. If things match, then the IS allows the nurse to proceed with the other aspects (s)he needs to continue with infusing the unit. Or perhaps RFID??