kdavis

What we have found out is that AABB does not require the expiration time to be printed along with the date unless it is less than 72 hours before expiration. We have found that if we print a new Hematrax label on a unit within 72 hours of expiration the label states Expiration Date/Time and the time prints next to the date. So...is anyone monitoring units on the shelf and reprinting the label once a unit hits that <72 hours mark?

We are in the process of getting our Hematrax up and running. We are using Meditech CS 5.67 to print a Product/Date label from the Process Units routine. Our expiration time is based on the time of thaw which also prints out on the transfusion tag. The Hematrax label only shows the time as the last 4 digits printed with the Julian date beneath the barcode, The actual expiration date prints out below, but not the time and the label reads "Expiration Date". Does anyone know if this is acceptable or if there is a way to get both to print apart form the barcode? We also have the standalone Zebra printer as backup and it prints both the date and time.

In a recent discussion, a friend shared that he had been asked by someone in an administrative position in his laboratory to change the results of ABO testing that had been verified and reported through the LIS some time prior. The issue was that a sample from a renal transplant donor had tested as B Pos on one occasion. A subsequent specimen on the individual tested O Pos and at that time another sample was drawn and tested O Pos as well. (The original (B Pos) specimen was no longer available to be retested.) I'm guessing the administrator was just born yesterday and believed this to be the first and only time this sort of thing had happened, because she asked him to change the results of the original testing to make it an O Pos specimen. I told him that such an action violates every regulatory, legal, ethical and moral standard I can think of, especially since the original results cannot be proven to have been wrong and it sounds like it was an attempt to avoid admitting a mistake either in collection, labeling or testing. My facility would note in the medical record that the correct type had been confirmed by testing to separate samples drawn at different times by different people and add an error comment on the incorrect blood type. Has anyone else ever had such a request made? How does your facility handle situations like this?

Thanks for all the responses. We are in the process of deciding whether to drop the A,B portion of our testing althogether or setting up some sort of arrangement with another hospital.

We do them for our renal transplant service.

Does anyone know of a vendor who supplies anti-A,B as single vial purchases? I seem to only find 10 or 15 x 10mL packages. We only use it for subgrouping and we do not do enough for it to be cost effective purchasing 10 vials and outdating 8. When Ortho stopped selling single vials some time ago we switched to Immucor but then they stopped also.

Is anyone using a complement-coated control cell to check the rectivity of your polyspecific AHG? We currently use our Coombs control cell (IgG-coated) for a positive control and a screening cell as a negative control, but wonder if we should be checking the C3 reactivity as well. We do not use a monospecific C3 AHG beacuse there is only one commercially available control cell and our volume does not justify a standing order or the tedious process of preparing control cells.

Our Blood Bank just entered the wondeful world of computerization last December. Nursing would like the blood tags to stand out in the charts by making them a color other than white. My question is does anyone know if regulations still require that colored tags conform to the old standard of blue for type O, yellow for A, pink for B, white for AB? I'm thinking since nearly everyone is probably printing tags from an LIS now, most of the tags are black ink on white paper so maybe no one cares if colored paper is used, as long as all the tags are the same color. The CFR does mention the colors, but in reference to labels for blood bags. If someone does know where a reg or standard is, please point me to it as our nurses always want to see the reference. Thanks.

Thrilled by your title. Nothing gets the job done like prayer! Will add your request to my daily list.

I am the BB supervisor at the facility where this question originated. We did not have any computer system prior to last December so this is a HUGE adjustment for everyone. We get our tags back for the reasons mentioned by Laurie. We are not ready to give them up yet, but nursing wants as much data recorded electronically as posssible. The problem they are having is that the EMR set up they have requires nurses to go to three separate screens to document and view the start, stop and vitals information, in addition to the duplicative efforts of manual (tag) and electronic recording. Laurie, could you please contact me by e-mail (kdavis@ecmc.edu)? I'd like to see if your IT specialists might be able to help our nursing informatics person with a different custom build for thier documentation. We are in the process of a hospital-wide upgrade that will eventually have TAR available so we too are hoping that will resolve many issues.