Lcsmrz

http://hosting-tributes-24789.tributes.com/condolences/view_memories/89295193 My father passed away in an unfortunate mountain biking accident with my brother. Please post any stories if you have any. I would love to hear as much about my father as possible. He was a good man, a hard and dedicated worker, and the best dad I could have asked for. Thanks, Rebecca Smrz

In my many years of blood banking, I've never used a full swinging rotor for serological testing, but there is no reason that you can't. I'd have to calibrate it and reteach my techs how to properly read buttons that aren't on the side ...

We are 100% luekodepleted -- it's the only product that I can get from my blood supplier. The transfusion committee has sanctioned this. The physician can write anything he wants that's decipherable as a unit of RBC's. He's gonna get a leukodepleted packed cell, and the patient will get charged accordingly ...

No ABO/Rh mistyping should be allowed - but they do rarely occur. It's important that you treat them as very serious errors and allow no excuses! Congrats on having a non-punitive QA system that the techs are comfortable using. I would have immediately determined a root cause for each and modified whatever was necessary to stop them cold, including reassigning techs who couldn't handle the pressure -- Micro is a nice spot for these techs, as is upper management

We tie the crossmatch hold time to the specimen outdate. Sample and any reserved units on-hold expire at 23:59 on the third day.

We also discard the empty bag will all attached tags after an uneventful transfusion. Only those with incomplete infusions are returned, such as reactions.

Your Medical Records dept is a good internal source for equipment and procedures for scanning documents. I bet half of their job is doing that!

"Eoin" makes a great point in not jumping to conclusions on hearsay evidence. The lab could have been an accident waiting to happen, and this tech was the unfortunate one to make it. I know of one tech who was rotated out of blood bank work for "errors" that he was never shown, and I suspect a personality conflict with the supervisor played an important part of that decision. I find that I make the most errors at the end of a double-shift, trying to keep a woefully-understaffed lab operational by working unwelcomed overtime. Since I know this, I am also the most careful at this time -- a younger, less-experienced tech may not be so introspective of personal limitations. Occasionally, labs will fire a good employee for being involved with a serious error, listing the corrective action as "employee terminated" when reporting to the FDA. While this makes it sound like it was negligence, it could have been a systems problem that no one bothered to address -- and it may happen again to someone else! My answer for this one? -- the interview makes it or breaks it for most potential employees!

We have a mandatory result field call "History Checked?" that is answered Yes/No.

We still have people using a relative's or friend's insurance info in ER. We require a current draw to confirm the Rh type, but issue RhIg before the rest of the testing is completed. An OB Clinic record would probably have multiple ABO/Rh determinations. They know the patient and her clinical history, so they may feel comfortable with that.

We have a receipt log sheet for each reagent that specifies the incoming acceptance criteria for the reagent at the top, followed by the "prior to use" QC that is required. Our in-use and new lots are segregated on different shelves. I also record when ordered, when received, and when activated, along with the required information that is listed at the top of the sheet, such as insert checks, visual verifications, QC performed, acceptance (Y/N), and a comment section for quarantines. All historical information about the reagent is on the same sheet. Each type of reagent will have different acceptance criteria, QC, etc -- there is no remembering by the techs -- they just have to read what's written on the sheet. There is no defined criteria for reagents, other than running QC before use. You have to decide on whatever makes you sleep at night ...

We are estatic to obtain any platelets when we have a need. We suggest RhIg if patient is Rh neg and donor is Rh pos. But in reality, only the younger females get it.

We also use the charge-type test for charging Ag Typing in Meditech CS v5.64, but I add them the following working day when reviewing transfusions on the Patient Master Log. I charge an Ag Typing on each transfusion, unless we get some special units in from the blood center for one patient. We rarely screen shelf units for an antigen ...

If the original sample becomes depleted, we redraw, reband, and start over from scratch with another T&S, etc. Our blood bank wristbanding system is a specimen identifier, not a patient identifier, so each sample gets a new wristband. The wristband number identifies which sample was used for the crossmatch.

Partial units are returned in the hopes of detecting something we would want to know about: clotted units, nonreported reactions, and the like. We find the strangest things happen with these units ...