bkrobinson

Staff need to know what supplies and reagents, etc that are needed for testing. Right? We are regulated by CAP, AABB, The Joint Commission and FDA and most SOP formats around require that these be listed. No, there is no standard but this has been something that we all do so it seems that there should be consistency in how we list them. Our main laboratory's SOP format that we must use requires this section, but each of the individual labs do something just a little bit different so I was trying to see what other blood bankers are doing. Guess not many thoughts on this so far. Thanks.

We can only find examples of how some others do this and it is all over the board as far as exactly what is listed. Thanks for your reply.

I have been a manager in blood banking for some time now. I now do the QA/QI/Compliance for our Transfusion Service. Our new Manager wants to change how we list reagents and supplies in that section of our procedures. I have checked AABB, CAP, NCCLS, etc. and can not locate anything that says exactly how you are to list reagents and supplies. I am used to saying 10 x 75 mm tubes, the name of the reagent (include manufacturer sometimes, especially if you have more than one being used in the lab) and saying either buffered saline or 0.9% NaCL, etc. I have worked several places and inspect for AABB/CAP and have seen lot of different ways of doing this. Do any of you know of a site where I can get more detailed info on what is expected to be listed in this section???? Thanks much.

Agree about the coolers. We still are not 100% on how to handle those without a data logger or monitoring device. Just today we sent up for an MTP 4 red cells and 4 plasmas in a cooler and 1 platelet pool (not in the cooler). They were later returned in a bedside wash pan with all products including the platelets in the pan with the gel packs on top of it all. Scary in deed. I will bring the monitors up aain and see were it goes.

Well for now we will be taking temperature for red blood cells and platelets (along with swirling the platelets). Our data show that at 15 minutes a lot of the readings were over 10C for the red blood cells. We will still use 30 minutes for plasma until one of the regulatory agencies comes up with a practical way to take the temp on plasma since some is at refrigerator temps and others have just been thawed and issued immediately. Our manager just does not like the Safe-T-Vu monitors due to the problems mentioned above.

We only put "Return to Blood Bank", a biohazard label, name of type of blood component to be inside the cooler and the annual validation label. We do not put any patient info on the coolers since that info is on the crossmatch tags on the units and we do send different patients to one site but the courier's pick up one patient's cooler at a time.

I emailed them about this and they responded back that their data is not available on this yet and it will be sometime in 2012 until it is. I also am checking with CAP and the California Blood Bank Association. I have never really ever heard about a rate to expect since they are all patient dependent, except when the Transfusion Service makes a mistake and here we expect that to be zero.

How interesting. I have also been an AABB inspector for years and I have known for a while that we want to move in that direction but I did not realize temperature was in standards that far back.

Thank you so very much.

Thanks to you both. The Cancer Center is using transfusion reactions as a quality metrix regarding our service to them. I explained that the reactions we see are not laboratory related and that we really should use some other measure but they are stuck on this one. Thanks about the website. I will try and look on it too.

Our Cancer Center is asking us to provide benchmarks to compare our transfusion reaction data to. I have looked just to be able to say that there is none and can not find any. Do any of you know of some that we can get access to?

I have asked this on other threads and not received a answer that fits. I even asked AABB. What about plasma? It gets issued at 1-6 when store thawed in the refrig. but when it is sent out immediately after thawing and then returned what is being done for temperature? It will never be between 1-10 in those cases. HELP! We are pulling our hair out over this one.

Give ourselves plenty of room? What does that possibly mean? When we are just thawing it and sending them out there is no way you can get them to be at 1-6 when they are returned. Oh Well. Thank you very much. We probably are just going to take temps on red blood cells and platelets and use 30 min for plasma and wait until they cite us on plasma so they will be more definitive about how to do temps on them. I appreciate your comments. Thanks much.

Soooo! We have just validated infrared temperature devices for taking the temperature of red blood cells and platelets. We were thinking of staying with 30 minutes for thawed plasma since we think it would require taking an initial temperature reading on those since some are just thawed and others are kept at 1-6C. Exactly what product were you cited for and did they mention anything about plasma? Thanks.

We currently use a 30 minutes from time of issue that the unit is to be started and that it must be transfused within 4 hours from leaving the Transfusion Service. We are in the process of updating our process to include temperature upon return within the proper range depending on the produc and no more than 30 minutes.