Mary**

The AABB Guidelines discusses taking the temperatures of the holding bins. What is an acceptable temperature range for these? Hope you are enjoying retirement.

Would you share your procedure please?

We are not getting any reactivity with our Complement Control Cells. They don't expire for another 11 days. We tried 2 different lot numbers of anti-sera and got the same results. We had this same problem about a year ago. Both the anti-C3b, C3d and the check cells are the same brand. Is anyone else experiencing this? It will probably take the maufacturer a year to "recall" them.

:cries:Are they drawing the nursing home specimens through a line and not discarding a volume first?

:cool:We provide the OR with extra bands. They use the original insert and place it in a new band when the surgery is over.

:clap:Welcome, Watson!

You do get "fibrin debris" if the specimen sits in the refrigerator for awhile. When we use prevously refrigerated specimens, we recentrifuge the plasma.

Are you looking for Codabar or ISBT-128 labels?

;)Does anyone use "liners" insdie of the tubes to protect the unit? Also, does everyone use plastic overwraps?

:confused:We will be moving to a new lab in April and have been requested to tube blood products. I have a question for those of you who tube multiple units in one tube. If you are tubibg refrigerated components, how does the receiing location maintain the temperature if all of the units are not given immediately? Thanks.

We do about the same as bbirder.

:judge:Due to a nurse giving blood instaed of platelets, our hospital safety committee wants to start sending us a copy of the physician's order to transfuse so both the person picking up the component and the Blood Bank Tech have to verify that it is the correct product. Does anyone else do this? I am worried that the order to transfuse more than one product will be on the same paper and cause phone calls, etc. I hope they are not trying to "share" the blame.

:frown:I I completely agree that the CAP reporting forms are cumbersome and prone to making errors. I always end up with a 20 page stack of paper also for J-A, with all the worksheets and print outs.

The website for the Technical Manual is:www.aabb.org

:cool:I have been in the field for 30+ years and have never worked anywhere that did Cord Blood testing on all babies.We only do those with Rh Negative moms and some on symptomatic babies who are jaundiced. Good Luck.

Good point!

I can't open the file.

:bonk:I have been through exactly what you are going through, only in reverse. I am the supervisor of a Blood Bank that historically only accepted BB specimens that were drawn or witnessed by a Blood Banker. This was established by my predecessor. I was told it was in reaction to WBIT many years ago. I was also in charge of the phlebotmists for a LONG 10 years and was very aware of the problems that occur in that group, so I continued with that policy. As our staffing kept decreasing continiously, my lab manager decided that the phlebotomists should be trained to draw BB specimens. I was very fearful at first. I decided that the phlebotomists with a proven track record of no patient misidentifications and some experience would be trained. I must admit that it has worked out very well for more than 5 years. At our current staffing levels, there is no way the BB techs could draw or witness all specimen procurements now., nor do most of them have the skill set to draw sucessfully. I personally train them most of the time , emphasizing the importance of the patient identification. I also monitor "smaller issues" like no date and time, etc. as part of the QA program and report my findings to their supervisor and to them. Even a Blood Banker could make a mistake, but it is probably less likely. Good luck.

We have also been with Cerner since 1988 and are currently using Cerner Millennium. I agree that it is flexable. Cerner Classic is no longer sold. Also in Indiana....

We also pull a segment at the time of receipt. However, we seldom have to use them becausee we require that the bag and tubing, but not the needle, be returned to us when a reaction is suspected. We can pull a segment from the bag and examine the bag for discoloration, additives, etc. I suppose we would only use the saved segment for a delayed hemolytic reaction because we don't ask that all bags are returned.

Do you know how albumin is prepared? I will aslo ask pharmacy.

I would be interested in hearing if you require an Informed Consent for transfusion of albumin? We use one because it is a blood product. On the other hand, we do not use one for Rhogam.:mad:

We take off a segment upon receipt and keep them 14 days post transfusion.

It would probaly be a delayed hemolytic reaction. I also worry :fear:about "new" patients that have been transfused elsewhere. Our hospital was flooded in June and our patients were sent to many different surrounding hospitals to be transfused. Some of them went to more than one hospital. This went on for 5 months. I worried about those that had previously detected antibodies that were below detectable levels when we had them. We now have them all back :whew:and have to inquire about their transfusions elsewhere in the past 5 months. I console myself by remembering that this happens frequently in large cites where the patients go to different hospitals.

Scary........