John C. Staley

I just found a red Phano brand china marker in my desk drawer where it has slumbered undisturbed for decades. Can't remember the last time I used it but it had to have been before Prometheus brought the sharpie to mankind. I looked online, Office Depot and Amazon have them and I'm sure others.
I agree with the above: go tube and dispose unless your resources are totally limited.
And do you remember Folin-Wu tubes, colloidal golds, protein-free filtrates, changing dialyzer membranes on 2 channel autoanalyzers, leukocyte reduced cells by inverted centrifugation, the fall of Rome, the discovery of fire and the other items that may mark us as ancient and should be retired like that guy's cell washer in another thread?

Do you have a transfusion committee?  If so, they might be a good one to bring this to their attention.  Also, if possible you might want to check, if you computer system is capable, and see if it is a generalized problem in ER or if you can pinpoint it to select physicians.  Another suggestion would be to get your medical director involved, it always seems to go a little smoother if you can get doctor talking to doctor.  In this day and age doing unwarranted testing should not be the norm and I imagine it will be very difficult to get some one to pay for a T&S on a diagnosis of "insecet bite".

Careful Anna; I've used it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good for you! I had to bring my Mom into the hospital several years ago. I was mid-fifties at the time and in good shape. Mom was mid-eighties, small and shriveled, and at the moment looked like she'd been dead for a decade. The nurse asked me, "Are you her husband?" I said, "You know, if you were a waitress you wouldn't get a tip."

Nope, I'm in the best shape of my life.  I was a couch potato and started cycling a few years ago.  Last month I started running and this morning I made it fr 5k.

If you check around I'm sure you can find a few places that offer senior discounts at 50! 

Only a babe but we are thankful for this site.  Belated best wishes.

Ahh.....such a young pup!!  Hope you had a great birthday!
 
Donna

I hope you were wearing ample PPE when you read that answer!!! 

I hope you were wearing ample PPE when you read that answer!!! 

I hope you were wearing ample PPE when you read that answer!!! 

I hope you were wearing ample PPE when you read that answer!!! 

I hope you were wearing ample PPE when you read that answer!!! 

Malcolm, a fair number of KBs have nothing to do with RhIG.  There are emergent situations where they need to know if the blood they are dealing with is mom's of baby's.  I know you know this but thought I would point it out anyway.  That's what friends are for. 

I just read the obituary, a fitting tribute indeed. I remember way, way back, George being involved in a sort of regional wet exercise (maybe put together by Pzifer, our reagent supplier at the time?). We were sent samples that turned out to react with all reagent cells. Some of us may have noticed a positive DAT. Participants met somewhere near Boston. No one had much of a clue as to what was going on or how to proceed. It turned out to be a warm auto panagglutinin with anti-K lurking underneath, and George went on the explain about the serology and showed us how to do autoadsorptions. Background knowledge about the serology and the technology and techniques is commonplace nowadays, but not then. Skill as an educator was one of his considerable array of talents, and I was fortunate enough to be a beneficiary. Eventually I was making ZZAP, then using the Immucor product WARM, and now PeG, but he started me, and many others, down the road. 

Do you have a transfusion committee?  If so, they might be a good one to bring this to their attention.  Also, if possible you might want to check, if you computer system is capable, and see if it is a generalized problem in ER or if you can pinpoint it to select physicians.  Another suggestion would be to get your medical director involved, it always seems to go a little smoother if you can get doctor talking to doctor.  In this day and age doing unwarranted testing should not be the norm and I imagine it will be very difficult to get some one to pay for a T&S on a diagnosis of "insecet bite".

Do you have a transfusion committee?  If so, they might be a good one to bring this to their attention.  Also, if possible you might want to check, if you computer system is capable, and see if it is a generalized problem in ER or if you can pinpoint it to select physicians.  Another suggestion would be to get your medical director involved, it always seems to go a little smoother if you can get doctor talking to doctor.  In this day and age doing unwarranted testing should not be the norm and I imagine it will be very difficult to get some one to pay for a T&S on a diagnosis of "insecet bite".

Do you have a transfusion committee?  If so, they might be a good one to bring this to their attention.  Also, if possible you might want to check, if you computer system is capable, and see if it is a generalized problem in ER or if you can pinpoint it to select physicians.  Another suggestion would be to get your medical director involved, it always seems to go a little smoother if you can get doctor talking to doctor.  In this day and age doing unwarranted testing should not be the norm and I imagine it will be very difficult to get some one to pay for a T&S on a diagnosis of "insecet bite".

Do you have a transfusion committee?  If so, they might be a good one to bring this to their attention.  Also, if possible you might want to check, if you computer system is capable, and see if it is a generalized problem in ER or if you can pinpoint it to select physicians.  Another suggestion would be to get your medical director involved, it always seems to go a little smoother if you can get doctor talking to doctor.  In this day and age doing unwarranted testing should not be the norm and I imagine it will be very difficult to get some one to pay for a T&S on a diagnosis of "insecet bite".

Are you doing the KBs because they meet a criteria for doing them or simply because the physicians are ordering them? 

Peer review for like procedures is more relevant than C/T ratios. If Dr. X is using twice as much blood as surgeons in the same facility and facilities elsewhere for the same procedure, he/she is using too much blood. Not that we are currently doing this, but our new pathologist is interested in the idea.

Did anyone else notice that Heat Blocks were listed under Hot Topics! 
 
The last heat blocks I had came equipped with digital temp read outs.  After doing all of the qualification testing to make sure the digital temps were accurate and reliable we only put a thermometer in the heat block when doing the monthly or semiannual (I can't remember which) 4 corner check.  That way we were not breaking off thermometers when reaching across heat blocks for some reason.  Never had any problems with those heat blocks.  Sorry but I can not remember the brand.

I've heard the arguments on both sides of this issue. Here's my take:
I have Helmer refrigerators that have the electronic alarm checks; we perform them daily to check high and low activation. I no longer do the quarterly ice/warm water test because I did a good validation when I received the new refrigerators (an AABB inspector suggested this...prove it works by validating it once). However, quarterly I do put a certified thermometer in the probe bottle and make sure that the certified thermometer, the chart temperature, and the digital display temp correlate within 1 degree C.
I also have the luxury of having continuous wireless electronic monitoring, and we have enough safeguards set up there (alerts go out immediately to the world for every temp out of range) and I can prove in the system that when an alarm is high or low, there is immediate corrective action documented.

Besides, you aren't that old yet Mabel.  Maybe someday but not today. 

The last (and only) one I went to was in 2000 at Vienna.  Had a great time and would love to go back.  That year I had a poster presentation on Automation in the Transfusion Service so Immucor helped foot the bill.  I was actually surprised how many folk I knew who were there.  Had a good long discussion with John Judd.  I recommend it to anyone who can swing the trip.