Martha Fogler

Thanks, Lu, for the CBBS web site reference. I like your protocol of using the Blood Bank ID band in addition to the hospital band.

Have any of your laboratories instituted a policy to require two, separately drawn specimens for ABO/Rh before transfusion? We are thinking about requiring this in our small hospital laboratories and would like to hear about others' experiences. This policy would not require two specimens for each transfusion; once you have the first ABO/Rh on record (performed in your laboratory), the patient would only have to be drawn once for subsequent pretransfusion testing. Since these are small hospitals with only one tech on at night, we would substitute an ID confirmation by nursing personnel rather than have the night tech draw a patient twice in that situation. Thanks. Martha