BankerGirl

We had problems with the nurses scanning the MAR instead of the armband for POC testing, so our IT department added a check digit to the armband.  When we started using bedside patient verification for blood transfusions, the scanners were already set up to require that check digit.  If they try to scan any other barcode they will receive an error.  This has helped tremendously!

Essentially, our work-around is to manually enter NP as the test result for both T-type tests.  Based on our BBK Calculation for the crossmatch, manual entry of NP will generate an interpretation of "Compatible ? N". 
 
User then changes the N to Y and is prompted by Meditech that interpretation does not match calculated result.  In our system, user can override this warning. 

Thank you for your excellent answer Malcolm.
 
So this "competition" can still be going on even if the baby is almost four months old?

Here, Here

Is anyone else missing the snow and smashable Christmas lights from last year as much as I am? 

Good idea - this way, you can get your QC done weeks ahead of time! 

I would antigen type the patient. If K negative, we would transfuse with K neg units (easy enough to find them). We would probably add the Anti-K to his account with a note that it came from the patient.
A couple years ago we found an Anti-E and Anti-c on a patient and prepared compatible units. When we were getting ready to issue them, the nurse called and said the patient would like to speak with us. I went up and she told me that she had "antibodies, but doesn't know what that means, and she had a horrible reaction many years ago". She insisted I call the hospital where she received the blood, even after I assured her that we found the antibodies. I called the hospital and they had Anti-E, c, and Jka. WHOA!!! Ever since that lovely lady was insistent, I listen to patients.

Meditech users:
 
We have just installed a custom (not a rule but custom hard code) in C/S version 5.66 that causes all specimens to expire at 2359 regardless of the time of specimen collection.  It will not be generally available as a DTS.
 
If you want this feature, you will have to press Meditech for it.

Good to hear from all the other Meditech BBK package fans. It did indeed take a while to do the historical conversion. Sunquest hired seasoned blood bankers to make, modify, instruct on and implement their LIS module. They knew exactly what their customers' needs and concerns were. Meditech primarily hires computer geeks straight out of college who learn the system by playing with it and guess what their customers need. Our initial Meditech instructor told us he never had a chemistry or biology course in college. Another used anti-A as an example of an unexpected antibody. I guess you get what you pay for.........

Consider asking Meditech, if it is possible to do a customization so that blood types from the historical conversion are treated as tested blood types.
 
Allow me to translate the above sentence: Consider asking Meditech if it is possible to do a customization so that their Electronic crossmatch actually works the way it is suppose to work.
 
We are going to start working on Electronic XM in Meditech and I'm so impressed that once again Meditech proves they really know nothing about Transfusion Medicine. I was also shocked to hear that someone else did a conversion of historical data in Meditech. It took us over a year (and many many software changes and fixes) to accomplish that conversion. In other computer systems, blood bank conversions can take 1-2 days.

The code that is on the bag is BB*D606A

The code that is on the bag is BB*D606A

We have an ECHO and we use PEG as our backup.  It works great because I have two different methodologies to work with and it saved me lots of money on reagents by using the same manufacturer.  Gel gave us way too many nonspecific reactions and it was just too expensive to keep two lines of reagents.

For pneumatic tube transport, has anyone tried these? Just curious if you have seen a difference in temp when unit is returned.
http://bloodtransport.us/index.html