MAGNUM

I have always had the temps taken every 4 hours for 24 hours once the temperature is stable.

What system are you using? We use BCTA (in Meditech) and if we run out of the barcoded unit labels I print labels for the units on Avery 8167 mailing labels that I either print out on MS Word, or hand write. But for scanning at the bedside, we scan the patient hospital armband, our blood bank barcoded band, then the 4 quadrants of the unit. Works fine as long as the scanners themselves are working correctly.

I only allow RNs and LVNs to pick up blood and blood products. And of course a physician can come pick up the units, but the chances of that happening are slim and none.

So what happens when this patient that "only" needs platelets, or cryo, or FFP suddenly needs a unit of packed cells? I "over-kill" in that I at least require a Type and Screen, that way we are covered.

1. Our blood bank samples are collected by our phlebotomists, and nurses that have been trained specifically by me and our phlebotomist staff on how to correctly collect samples. 2. We do use a banding system. We now use the typenex barcoded flexiblood system. 3. Since nursing draws a lot of our blood bank specimens, when we get the specimens into the blood bank and check histories if they have no history, then we send a phleb back to see the patient to collect another sample (begrudgingly of course). 4. I can only think of one instance where we had an incorrect draw by the floor, and that was determined upon check of the patient history and a different blood type. Reteach and retest of the nurse before she was "allowed" to collect ANY other lab samples and then on a probationary period of 60 days, 30 of which they could not collect any specimens by themselves. On a separate note, any labeling errors for the blood bank (other than writing a date or time of collection in rare instances), and the specimen is treated as unlabeled and must be recollected. I hate doing that to the patients, but we can NEVER be tooooooooooo safe in the blood bank.

One form, one signature for up to 10 units. Usually the physicians automatically come by the blood bank to sign the form because they know that they will eventually have to sign it. I have even visited them in their offices to get the form signed.

We have a form we call a "pick up" that is basically a duplicate of our blood tag. In addition when the floor comes to pick up the unit they are required to bring the pickup and the physicians order. We have caught many ordering errors that way since we see what the physician actually wrote such as irradiation, cmv negative, etc.

Although I no longer use the Ficin panel, you would use the dil 2 same as for anything else that entails using the IgG card.

I do have a transfusion services Medical Director, but he also covers other hospitals in the area as their pathologist, so I have always just sent my policies to our laboratory medical director. Ours are done electronically, so it is very easy to do. We use a program called Compliance 360 and in it you can define who reviews what and in what order. All my new procedures are approved by me, then the laboratory director, then the Medical Director who then locks the policy. At 90, 60, 30, and past due I get a message in my email saying that such and such policy is due for review on x day. Then it is only me and the medical director that reviews the policies. Compliance 360 is also a secure program.

United Blood Service uses a different software package, but for the life of me I cannot think of what it is. Old age has crept upon me.

If the unit is aliquoted into a syringe irregardless of whether it was sterile docked, the outdate is 4 hours because it it technically now an open product and no longer part of the mother unit. If there are aliquot bags docked to the mother unit and the blood is aliquoted into them, then those bags maintain the outdate of the mother unit until they are opened. Once the bag is entered, the outdate then changes to 24 hours.

What, and have two government entities talk with each other!!

Vitals are taken just prior to, at 15 min, 30 min, and then hourly thereafter. I am able to monitor this thru our blood bank system utilizing BCTA. The nurses are prompted via audio and visual prompt to perform their vitals.

By marking out the date and changing it to 24 hours will work for most facilities, but our facility uses a meditech module called BCTA which requires scanning of the four quadrants on the unit face, so all our units must be relabeled.

Our primary method is Gel, only on rare occasions such as quick types, retypes, abid's, etc. do we use tubes. On those occasions I have spreadsheets set up in the computer system for both the tubes and for gel testing.

First off Congratulations. Secondly, I spent approximately 20 years NOT in a blood bank setting but everything else, 3 years in a drug lab, several years in clinics, 6 years as a bench tech in a hematology reference lab, etc., long and short it is never too late to learn a new trade.

If it is indeed WARM, don't waste your money or time, in my humble opinion it doesnt work appropriately.

Thank you Peter, although I knew much of your information, it is always good to have a refresher.

Currently we follow a plan similar to Deny.:cool:

Something must have worked, I received an electronic acknowledgement this AM from Immucor, telling me to stop using this lot of Complement control cells, my regular standing order should be here already, or so it says.

The bad lot number was 36181.

I havent had a problem with my complement control cells, but with my new lot of panocells, screen cell 1 has started giving me 1-2+ results with O patients. When we do the ID, nothing. I called, and since I had troubleshooted to the best of my ability (ran DAT on cells, ran straight in the gel, etc.), Immucor decided to send me a new lot of cells that should be arriving at any moment. Oh and by the way, repeating the cell in tubes yields a negative test, go figure.

Like Malcolm, we test for Jkb every time we get a Jka, and vice versa.