Penny Thiel

Don't break your head over it, Cyndie. There will always be things that you're just gonna have to let go of. We had a lady a few years ago who came in for some sort of anemia, be transfused her and wow and wow, she had this massive reaction. I'm tellin ya, in her spun blood bank tube you could literally not tell the difference between her cells and plasma. All of it was RED! A huge who-ha followed and we turned her every way but loose! EVERYTHING was negative including testing for PNH. The whole hospital was stymied! Her hemoglobin was holding around 5 and you know what? She left AMA and we never heard from her again. This is a small town and something like that is most bizarre. So, be blessed that you and your crew did nothing incorrectly, put the experience in your "Little Known, Well Known Facts" file, smile and go about your day. With a smile, Penny

She's blessed that all you said was "those" : )

You folks have made my day! Thanks!!

Ya know, actually, we have precious little problems with our OR staff, it's the LDU nurses that just DRIVE us!! That's what got me goin on this thread to begin with!

Wow! Have things ever changed!! I did work years at a place that had Translogic - good system. We never used it to transport blood for 2 reasons: the primary being if the unit broke within the system during transit, it would have been a major undertaking to decon. the system. There were also questions of temp. QC. Course, like I said, this was years ago and I'm sure the carriers have been greatly improved to prevent leakage. Sounds like you've got it all put together! Great! Good question!

Hi Adiescast! Finally! Someone who answered my original question! Thank you! I made a copy of your reply and plan to use it along with statements from some of our floor nurses who really do just happen to appreciate the band system. They feel it makes them more secure. Yeah, it's true. With regards to your very well put together last sentence: I think it's tuly a symptom of a much greater disease - that being it sure appears doctors and nurses have no respect for the laboratory professional - something I never experienced until I came from California to Missouri. In California, the CLS most dreaded California State Exam. is required to practice there and Med. Techs are treated with the highest respect. At least this was so 5 years ago. I 've had a very hard time with being treated like I'm just some little high school graduate, pushing buttons or sending tests out. During National Lab week last year we put together these stand along cards for the cafeteria tables. Each one with a different Lab, employee - a picture and educational and professional history. The one most frequently stated thing to me after the week was nurses saying they had NO IDEA we had such an education. Imagine that. Course, this lasted maybe another week and they were back to treating us like they've always done. Anyway, thank you so much for your response. With a smile, Penny

Dude! : )

Bravo!! Market it and sell it! : )

Hi LucyLou! We use yellow. In our hospital, a yellow armband indicates a Fall Risk, but there is really more white on the patient Blood Bank armband than yellow. The unigue number stickies are yellow and they come to us with the sample. The hospital did not mandate the color. We (nurses too) just all agreed that we had always used yellow so yellow it would be.

We go through the same thing and a few of our hospital departments are continually seeking ways to compromise our Blood Bank policy to meet their needs. For real: nurses, and doctors too, are the very last people who should be thinking they can dictate or change Laboratory let alone Blood Bank policy and procedure. I agree with Mr. Staley. We need to HOLD THAT LINE.

We have used Typenex for years. The only problem for us was the metal closure seemed to get more and more difficult to press closed and the phlebs were complaining about it. We have found a new band with the same protocol and very easy closures. They are called Securline and are sold by Precision Dynamics.

Hi there! I would deeply appreciate knowing what type of banding system you all use - if any - and do you allow computer generated labels as opposed to hand written labels on your samples for transfusion. Thanks so much for your time! With a smile, Penny

Hi there! Perhaps I was unclear about charges. We do not charge for the second check we do now. It is a "different tech-same draw" second check.

Ok, I got kind of lost with everyone's answers mainly because there was no clear indication if they were actually talking about "same tube-different Tech" second check or "new tube, different draw" second check. If the AABB and CAP decide this should be protocol, then we should be able to charge for it eventhough we don't chart it because we do the work. We currently do a same tube-different tech second check but I'm thinking we're going to have to change that.

Hi Troops! Hope I'm replying in the correct place. K, the whole Blood Bank Arm Band issue....sigh....I don't understand why everyone seems to be wanting to make it all so difficult. Why can't people just march in a straight line and do their jobs? Our current plight is being spear headed by some nurses who think it would limit their mistakes if we went to computer generated labels on the patien and the tube....yeah, ON THE PATIENT for their BB armband. I don't understand what is so hard about Name, Med. Rec #, date, time and initials. Am I missing something here? Oh my, and cord bloods? Please. Can anyone give me one really solvent reason to get rid of the Blood Bank Armband? Thanks for your time all! With a smile, Penny