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clmergen

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Posts posted by clmergen

  1. I bought most of my books either from AABB or Amazon. My main 2 texts were Harmening and the TEchnical manual with the AG facts book as another resource. I used other texts available at work or from my medical director for topics not well covered in those books. I did go through FBS so having their objectives and lectures were very helpful. I needed the motivation of those tests every 3 weeks to ensure that I stayed on top of my studying.

  2. As for "how to do a research project", I google it. I did do small research projects in high school and college but that was so long ago. I found some good information on how to write them, etc. You could probably find an book on the process also. And I was with the Florida Blood Services SBB program. They gave a lot of good advice on the project and how to improve it as I turned in sections at a time.

    The programs are so good that you will do well on the exam. Know the objectives that they give you, study well, and review the "remembered questions' if you get a copy of them. You will do well as they programs are very good.

  3. We didn't have any problem with our bio med guys, they just electrical tested it and placed it into service. Why would it need to be double insulated or grounded? Its just a light box? These light boxes have been around for 10 years and no inspector has ever written one up that I know of. I think they are overthinking it.

  4. There are consignment programs out there the pharmacy could look into. The stock could be on hand but no charges incurred unless used.

    My last place of work, the transfusion service handled the derivitives but we had a medical director that calculated doses in his head and made sure they were used appropriately. It worked well all around.

  5. It depends on your manufacturer. Immucor makes a D control for use with it's monoclonal Anti-D reagents. Ortho package inserts says that a D control is not necessary but if the customer requires the use of one, then the use of 6-8% albumin is acceptable.

  6. Having drawn donors for years in CO at elevation, we would have had problems with an upper limit. In fact, physicians would sometimes recommend donation for those people who may have a high H/H due to the elevation and no other reason. If donors mentioned this to us, we very clearly asked if they were diagnosed with polycythemia or hemochromatosis. If the answer was no, we accepted them for donation.

    BTW, we had a noncompliant polycythemia patient that would occasionally come in with a hematocrit of 70%.

  7. We will be barcoding the wristband number into the LIS at prompts. Another way to cut down on human error. If we ever get to a better EMR, hopefully the RNs will have to barcode the wristband number also.

    I do intend to get some of the handwritten ones to use for our outpatient draws that won't have readily available patient labels. But for my inpatients, I want less writing. I want the nurses to be able to read what is on the patient's wrist and not hav eto "guess" what the name or number might be.

  8. Training and competency assessments are your best bet. Really make sure your phlebotomists know why we are so strict. I am switching to a band that uses the patient label in order to cut down on the handwriting errors and I intend to strongly train in positive patient identification. Other than that, make sure you hire good phlebotomists and fire those that aren't capable of positive patient identification 100% of the time.

  9. From a quick lecture I had in SBB school, donor screening tests are approved by a different process at the FDA than are diagnostic tests. It has to do with sensitivity vs specificity. So if I remember correctly, if a manufacturer submits to both processes and gets approved twice, then yes we could use it. But as SMW stated, it depends on the manufacturer.

  10. I think I need to revalidate mine. I am having the problem with one unit going below 1C. I never thought to try it without the bottom pack. Luckily this is still a work in progress for me. I also couldn't reliably keep it under 6C for an extended period of time with multiple units. The supplied data only "guaranteed" for up to 6 hours so I used that as an end time and it is doing ok.

  11. Kate, I have those for transporting to my off-site for transfusion but wasn't sure how they would work for OR. Do you freeze the ice packs in the plasma freezer? I am having problems keeping the temp >1C with the freezer packs right out of the freezer. I only validated mine for 6 hours and they did well. I just worry about cleaning them in a bloody trauma.

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