boothega
Content Type
Store
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Events
Frequently Asked Questions
Gallery
Downloads
Glossary
Links Directory
Questions
Jobs
Vendors
Everything posted by boothega
-
We all know that you will come across donors who have a transient positive DAT. Our protocol is to place a computer "special process" code on the corresponding donor record. We call it "PDAT" (positive DAT). We generate a daily report that looks for donors who donated with this code. We test any that show up on the report. Our experience has been that most of these donors do not repeat as positive on subsequent visits. Or test negative after one or two repeat visits. A few will test negative for multiple donations, have one test positive, and then revert back to negative. Occassionally, we notice a donor who may test repeatedly positive over multiple donations and we inform our collection services that this may be a donor they want to defer from future donations (consistently collecting an unusable product). For us, it is worthwhile to keep these donors active in the pool as most will provide a usable unit.
-
To add to Melanie's comments concerning expense, irradiation shortens the shelf life of a commodity that is already is short supply. Experience demonstrates that units set up are not always transfused, so in effect, 100% irradiation decreases the shelf-life of an inventory supply that in most communities is critically low at any given time (i.e. group O units). You may (unintentionally) be having a negative impact on your local supply by promoting such a policy.
-
Speaking from the supply side, I find it interesting that facilities are performing 100% irradiation of their inventories. My guess would be that these are facilities who do not buy on consignment, as they would be unable to return any modified, short-dated inventory to the supplier. What do the facilities do in regards to K+ sensitive patient populations, like neonates, pediatrics, cardiac patients etc? Are you able to provide fresher units versus older consistently? Do you irradiate at time of use or do you irradiate at time of import processing (when you bring the inventory into your system)?