NancyC

The nurse's "transfuse" order can be turned on to print when released. That is what our nurses bring to us out of Epic for blood pickup. The patient label is the downtime procedure for when the printer isn't working or for surgery patients because that workflow does not use transfuse orders.

We keep a segment pulled at issue for 10 days placed in a cup with issue date.

Our KB test is considered a Miscellaneous Hematology test and we have designated readers who perform the CAP surveys to prove competency since we get so few of them. Some of the techs are generalists who float into the blood bank and some are Heme techs. As long as your SOP spells out whose responsibility it is to read the slides, the department should not matter. Competency is required though.

Hi Ray, we have been using Epic/WellSky (previously HCLL) since 2013. Nchristensen@olympicmedical.org

Congrats!

We emergency issue the freshest O NEG unit we have (not always irradiated) and nursing staff administers how much of it is needed. We transfuse a newborn maybe once every 10 years on their way out via airlift to nearest pediatric hospital.

We having been using the ALBAQ controls for 7 years as DAT controls without issue and I do not plan on changing. However, I did put into place a back-up plan to test a donor unit, if we should ever receive a false positive result on our DAT NEG control to cover our deviation from manufacturer's instructions.

OR tisssues regulated under the hosptial CLIA license, not regulated by blood bank license. When asked to have BB take over, my CAP consultant said "say no and run". I just showed them (OR) the difference in regulations and they kept the tissues.

Done by the BB (ordered as misc. Heme test) - all float techs are generalists and only a handful kept competent to read (currently 5 techs), all stain slides. TAT = 24 hours.

We have made it policy that if the bleeder is an adult male or a female beyond child bearing years, they automatically get O Pos. We only have 6 - 8 O Negs at any given time and we are 2 1/2 hours away from our blood supplier so we are protective of our O Neg supply.

Are you already Epic/Beaker and adding Mediware or the other way around? We currently have that combination (Epic/Beaker in May 2013 and added Mediware in Oct. 2013). We are affilliated with a larger organization and are what they call "community conect". This is usually used for clinic add-ons, but we are a 100 bed hospital with an extensive outreach service and a Cancer Center so we have a large test menu. So we are the first community connect (maintained on an external server) of this size for this organization and therefore have had numerous problems.We have been extremely frustrated with the Epic/Beaker portion as we do not have any control over the build and it is not being customized for us but 'standardized' for the larger organization which does not fit our needs and in many ways seems to be a reduction in quality of care. As far as Mediware interface: Biggest problems are that reflex testing fails so we have to add/replicate additional testing. Comments are limited in character size and only one comment will cross without failure. All specimens must be received in Beaker before they cross into Mediware. Updating the physician database in the Mediware configurator to prevent ADT failures is on-going daily process (due to our large organization affiliation). System is designed for physician ordering of all blood products and physicians are hard to train (different processes for scheduled outpatient transfusions (Cancer Center patients) vs inpatient transfusion ordering. Hope this helps. Nancy

Thanks Denny, how easy is the maintenance? NancyC

Sorry, I am not familiar with the Sahara plasma thawer, but would like to know how you like your Helmer and if there is anything you don't like about it. I am trying to decide between the Helmer DH4 and the GEM Thermogenesis MT204 for purchasing a new plasma thawer. Anyone else out there have any input on the best plasma thawer? Thanks, NancyC

Thanks. We've decided that our policy will be only one (up to 500 ml unit)/week. The last patient we drew two units from did not feel well afterwards. Nancy C

I am looking for other hospital policies regarding total volume of therapuetic phlebotomy on any given day. Can anyone help me out? We have a retired MD who now needs therapuetic phlebotomies and is extremely upset with us because we have a policy of not removing more than one 450ml whole blood unit/week. Other area hospitalsI have checked with will remove up to 500mls every three days. We only offer this service on Tues., Wed. and Thursdays which limits us as well. We want to know what the industry standard is to help us evaluate our policy. Please help.