DANDERS

We use the BBK Specimen Expiration function found under Edit to extend the expiration date up to 30 days for our pre-op patients only and they have to meet the criteria of not being pregnant or transfused within the last 3 months. Everyone else expires at 72 hrs and that is set as the default in Meditech. AABB Technical Manual, 20th Edition, 2020:506-7 allows 45 days before surgery but I chose to say 30 days.

We do not extend the expiration date but love to know if others find you can because we never use the entire bottle and it seems like a big waste of money.

I am wanting to go paperless with Emergency Issue and MTP. How do you meet the requirement for capturing the Dr's signature for taking responsibility for the uncrossmatched blood?

I'm having the same issue. I too assumed it was the camera. It's been adjusted and a new one ordered. I thought it was just me. Good to know.

Can anyone tell me how you're utilizing the barcode itself. How are you reading them in the blood bank and then at the patient's bedside?

Does anyone have a policy they'd share regarding when it's okay to not repeat an AB ID on a repeat patient with a known antibody. I have a patient who comes in every week for blood. A+ with an anti-K since 2003. I worked up the antibody everytime at the beginning, then was told about a policy I could implement and not work it up every time. Before I implemented it, her screen went negative and stayed that way for the last several years. Well, all of the sudden, her screen is positive again. The reactions are consistant and there's no other antibody. If it's possible to not work this up every week, I'd love it know how to properly word a policy.

What policy does everyone use to insure a returned unit of blood is between 1-10oC in order for it to be returned to the Blood Bank?

What about if using the gel system? Is weak D testing necessary?

Depending on the patient's insurance and it's rules, registration gives a Pre-Clinical V# for pre-op testing and a Pre-Inpatient V# or a Pre-SameDaySurgery V# for the surgery. If the Pre-op visit is close enough to the surgery date they're given one V#. We use the MR# in blood bank so the different V#s don't cause us any problem. We also use the Move to Another Acct routine.

We are about a 100-125 bed hospital using the ProVue and LOVE it. It's generalist-friendly; if down (rarely), the manual get is great; you can have continual flow; IS and IgG xmach; donor reconfirmation is very easy. The only thing we don't put on the ProVue is Fetalscreens.

When we used tubes, we would repeat the screen using a 1:28 dilution and reported like you said. I don't know where this came from but we used it for many years until we switched to gel. Now we run the full panel and confirm the patient did receive RHIG. We report "Residual-D - patient received RHIG on dd/mm/yy".

We use the DOB & V# except in BBK where we use the MR#. Our oncologist's office is the only area outside the hospital allowed to draw crossmatch specimens. They have a list of their patient's MR#s, but call us when they don't have one. If the patient doesn't have a MR# yet, we have them use the DOB.

We don't re-check any of our reference lab's antigen testing, but we do perform a full IgG crossmatch in gel for any units being given to a patient with a known antibody.

We switched to Rhophylac some time ago. Like David, the nurses weren't interested in the fact that it could be given IV. Now they are.

We've been using the ProVue for over 3 years and love it. I was sold on automation by the Immucor sales rep and the ABS 2000. By the time I convinced upper management, Ortho had the ProVue out. We had on-site visits with each and preferred the gel technology over the Capture method. We have never been sorry. We've had rare down times - only one probe crach. All of our techs took to it quickly. We use the gel for back-up, but kept the reagents to type in tube if necessary. We do everything on the ProVue. The only thing it does not do is Fetalscreens.