clmergen

Echo - I run the purchased Whole Blood controls from Immucor once per day or a second time if a reagent lot number changes. They are run as a Type and Screen and nothing more.

If the power is completely out and I can't read my online SOP's then I probably can't do any testing either. My computers and all of my equipment are on the same emergency generators. The bigger concern of online documents is if the server goes down containing the doucments. Then the CD or Thumbdrive or whatever you have in place should suffice. I do have the same concerns of getting people to read the SOP's but these are probably the same people not reading the paper copies now and trying to do everything from memory. At least with the online program we are using, we can hyperlink to other prcedures or to job aids as necessary.

"Indated certified thermometers" freshly purchased usually come with a certificate that is NIST traceable. At least the ones I purchase do. As for the thermometers I do get calibrated, it is done using standards tracable to NIST and I get a document that says that. These thermometers are then used to validate that the rest of my other thermometers are reading correctly. I do all of this once per year and this is clearly documented.

That is when you answer the question "Am I Rh neg or Rh Pos?" with a yes.

We changed ours to 65 as a cut off. We had to have a clear guideline and at the time of the change a 56 yr old woman had just had a baby.

We just use a clear ziplock bag. We purposely do not use a biohazard bag because units of blood are not considered a biohazard. Exception of course would be an autologous unit that was positive for an infectious agent, those are issued in biohazard bags.

I think Cardinal has a similiar substitute. I compared MSDS's to get active ingrediant. But I don't think the price was much better. We use so little of it that I still buy from Helmer.

We buy CAP proficiency testing because we are CAP accredited. Makes life easier all around.

That might explain the letter I recieved from Immucor talking about their strategy and investment in our Industry.

That is why we ceased using second armbands years ago. If the armband is cut off, the patient is rebanded using in place hospital policies and Transfusion Services does not have to start over from scratch. It eliminated more errors than it has caused.

I had a friend tell me that she stopped donating blood because the Donor Centers used guilt as a motivating factor (I was working at the Donor Center at the time). I refrained from asking how guilty she would feel when her loved ones were in the hospital and couldn't get blood because there was a shortage.

Aren't these just wonderful. During my alarm activiation tests, I heat it up (or cool it down) to the temp I want. If it doesn't alarm, then I SLOWLY move the knob until I get an alarm. Then I let it come to equilibrium and retest until I have the knobs in the right spot. I know it isn't pretty and it is time consuming.

We are interfacing our very old Cerner Classic system. We won't see a change for a while.

Terri, we just went up on Epic 5 weeks ago. Unfortunately we didn't have a lot of say in how our order sets were built. I will try to find copies to send to you of what we have. To add to the confusion, we have 4 hospitals on Epic and we have tailored order sets for the docs at different sites.

We use Immucor Series 1 which is a monoclonal blend. It is a blend of Anti-A (series 1), Anti-B (series 1) and another clone. We did pick up a weak subgroup of A last year that was negative with Anti-A (series 1) and very weakly positive with Anti-A,B (series 1). We sent the unit back to the supplier.

I always call it a lucky day when a patient with a history of antibodies has a negative screen. Since we are honoring all the known antibodies anyway, I never even considered retesting. However if last week the screen was 3+ and today it is negative, then I probably would repeat it, along with my controls, and possible redraw the patient. I guess my answer should be sometimes since each patient must be assessed individually.

I think the "FDA cleared device" refers to Microwaves not thawbaths.

Our set temp is 35.5 and alarm temp is 36.5.

I used to work in a hospital based Donor Center and we did all our pH testing with pH strips. We just QC'd them each day of use using Urinalysis QC shared by that department. It's been 3 years but I doubt much has changed.

The standards and Tech Manual just say that a serologic test to confirm the ABO group must be performed. I like the use of Anti-A,B because it is quicker, less wasteful, and occasionally you can pick up that weak A subgroup that doesn't always show with Anti-A.

If we have such a large electrical failure that none of my computers are working, then chances are really good that I am not doing any testing either. All of my computers are on the same emergency power as my equipment.

For downtime, you just need a copy of the manuals saved on a CD that can be read from a PC that has a CD drive. No network needed. Of course, the CD would need to be updated everytime there was a procedure change.

I knew fluorescent lights were evil, but not that bad. And I do believe it.

What system did you interface it to.

To transfer between the hospitals in our system we use our Blood Supplier's boxes and follow their packing instructions. Its already been validated by the blood supplier and we don't do anything extra.