silverblood

Our facility has used a separate identification band for patients who are going to be transfused or who may be transfused. This would include patients who come in pre-surgically to have their pre-surgical lab work done. The patient is requested to keep the blood bank identification band on for when they arrive at the hospital for their surgery. We also have an 'infusion center' where patients come in to have infusions as an outpatient procedure-for example, chemotherapy patients who may need blood or platelets. These patients are also required to arrive at the hospital for their procedure with this band on. As inpatients, a blood bank is attached to the patient with their first blood bank order (i.e. type and screen and/or crossmatch) and this band can be used for this patient throughout the admission. If the blood bank specimen expires (72 hours) the patient can be identified for further blood bank testing using this blood bank I.D. number-in this case the blood bank I.D. number is written on the new sample that is drawn. We have very strict rules regarding these bands and who can draw blood bank samples and who can or cannot remove blood bank bands from a patient. Floor personnel and phlebotomists cannot remove a blood bank I.D. band until blood bank is notified. I have worked at this same facility for 35 years now and this system has worked very well for us. We have never had a case of a unit of blood being given to the wrong patient and have never had a 'sentinel event' involving any blood bank issue (mistyping, wrong patient drawn and misidentified etc.) I would really hate to see this method of identification eliminated at our facility just because this extra level of security is considered cumbersome or time consuming. Safety is always the way to go in blood bank as far as I am concerned.

I can appreciate John's and cimergen's stance on this issue.  But there is a distinct advantage to a secondary blood band system and that it is designed to prevent WBIT; doing a blood type on a specimen collected from a different venipuncture is designed to detect WBIT.  So choose wisely..or do both!