Eloise

Hi to all, I was wondering whether anyone who is doing KB currently has looked into doing Flow Cytometry instead KB. I was speculating that perhaps labs were still doing KB because they don't have access to Flow or maybe Flow wasn't available within a sufficient TAT and that might be why people are still using KB. I'd be interested to know also how many labs are using the CAP calculator also. (Our doctors are willing to use that calculator, but not many labs in my area are doing that yet.) Thanks for any feedback. Eloise

Hi to all, I'm wondering what everyone else is doing for consent forms for Rh Immune Globulin. Do you have a specific form for Rh Immune Globulin? Also, do you have two nurses verify everything the same as for a blood transfusion? (At some facilities that may be covered by electronic bed side verification.) How about IVIG and albumin? Do you have separate consent forms for those? Thanks in advance for any info. Eloise

My thanks to everyone. We have had this problem and the doctors thought that our lab values were in error, but we didn't have a good article to give them that would help reinforce what we were telling them about postural changes.

I was wondering if anyone knows of an regulation from the FDA, CAP or AABB that would require us to hard wire an external alarm to another area in the hospital. I'm also wondering what others are doing for their external alarm system. I work at a small facility, so the tech at night is alone and may be out of the lab for as much as an hour doing AM draws on the wards. We have gone from a hard wired system in which the alarm was hard wired to another area that was manned 24/7, to a new system (with new construction) where we are utilizing a cell phone system (that doesn't seem to be working very well). Thanks in advance! Eloise

Thanks to everyone for writing! Eloise

I forgot to say that likke many anti-M antibodies, this patient's antibody is showing dosage, i.e. only reacting with homologous M panel or screen cells. My thanks to all who have responded. Eloise

Hi to all! I'm wondering about Anti-M. We have a couple of patients who have had reactions in gel that were later identified as Anti-M. (We send all of our antibody identifications to a reference lab for work-up.) The latest patient had positive reactions by tube method at RT, 37 degrees, and AHG (Ig-G). The reference lab performed a prewarm technique and has stated that this antibody is not a clinically significant antibody because it prewarmed away. From what I've found in the AABB technical manual, if the antibody is demonstrated through AHG as this one is, then it is clinically significant and you can't eliminate it because the prewarm technique has been known to eliminate clinically significant antibodies. My training has been to always transfuse antigen negative blood when an antibody is identified. I was wondering if anyone has any thought about this and how they hand patients with anti-M. Thanks in advance. Eloise

We have a cap on overtime and a hiring freeze. So far the administration has not gotten rid of pay raises, but we are expecting that. Our lab is at bare bones and the manager is currently looking to bring in more business to increase profits. Our hospital is critical access and doesn't does next to no elective surgery, but with layoffs, etc. around the area, a lot more people will not have insurance to help them pay costs, so the hospital is expecting to see a significant drain on revenues.