BBK710

We do a blood type and DAT. If the DAT is positive we do an antibody screen on the mother. If the mom is type O with a negative antibody screen and the baby is A or B we report this as presumptive evidence of ABO incompatibility. We stopped doing the LUI freeze thaw years ago.

Has anyone heard of or is anyone using General Blood LLC?

I am curious about all of those who staff with 2 or less on day shift. Do your techs work every other weekend? Are you automated? How many types/ type and screens do you do daily?

We check our computer system using the patient's medical record number. We also keep a card file on all patient's with antibodies or special transfusion requirements. We check that as well and would investigate any possible matches or discrepancies. I know a card file may seem out of date but it is great for downtime and registration errors.

Currently we require that nursing documents on the blood request card that they have verified the physician order to transfuse. We only crossmatch units if there is an order to transfuse. We do not "hold" blood for anyone except the OR and those units are not issued to anyone but the OR. If they are to be transfused post-op we require the physician to place a new order to transfuse. We are in the process of creating a nursing order to transfuse that will print in the blood bank so that we know there is an order to transfuse.

We just got a patient today. Positive in cell #1 VS633 and in cell #4 on Panel A VRA 181.

We require a second specimen to verify ABO/Rh on all transfusions when there is no history. In that case we would still need a specimen when they prep them for surgery. We currently do a Type and Rh on all L&D admits. If they need a screen added for surgery we use that specimen and request a second specimen for Blood Type confirmation. Unfortunately they almost never send them because the patient is already in the OR.

We do the same.

We only test cord bloods from Rh negative mothers. But we hold the cord blood on O pos moms in case the pediatrician wants it tested. Does anyone test these "held" specimens after the baby has been discharged? If so do you have patient identification issues? Many of our babies have a completely different last name after discharge. Do you bill under the inpatient account since that was when the specimen was collected?

We have upgraded to 7.0 and they have NOT improved this process. It still times out. And it is very easy for a tech to get distracted during this process particularly if they are the only person in the department at the time. I would be very interested in hearing what process others are using to prevent this. For those who don't print the unit tag until time of issue do you identify units in the refrigerator prior to issue? Obviously the process to issue will take longer and I am not sure that the nurses who come to pick up blood will be happy about that since they are always in a hurry to get back to their patients.

Once the blood is transferred to the syringe from the aliquot by nursing how is the syringe labeled? All of the information is on the aliquot which would be discarded once the blood is put into the syringe.

We actually visually check daily at the same time we are checking that the groups are not mixed up and in expiry date order. We do not have a large inventory so this is not a problem for us.

We do it quarterly as recommended in the AABB Technical Manual. We also document any alarms when they occur.

We document visual inspection of all units upon arrival, daily and at issue.

We do the same. I have noticed that our reference lab no longer charges the 86870 AB ID/each panel and media. They just charge the 86885 for each selected cell. Sometimes we are charged for 25+ cells. I have not heard that we have had any problem with these charges going through.