Jane

I thought I remembered before that these units must be incincerated. Can anyone help me remember if there is such a reg or point me to it? Thanks!

I have always used expired antisera as well. Usually just a drop or two will do it. We used to make our own QC material by this same method, aliquot, and freeze it.

I read recently that H&H equilibrates within 15 minutes after a unit transfusion. I found it in "A Compendium of Transfusion Practice Guidelines" published by ARC in 2010. The same reference says to measure the platelet count 10-60 minutes after transfusion. It doesn't state an amount of time for PT/PTT following plasma. Hope this helps! Jane

OMG~! I just found another manual on the TraQ website with flow charts for most standard blood bank processes (developed with Lucia Berte). If anyone wants to check it out for tons of flow-charted goodness: www.traqprogram.ca To find the flow charts (site path): Resources-Manuals-TraQ/PBCO Manuals-Technical Operations Manual-scroll down to processes. Enjoy!

Our blood supplier currently only produces pre-storage leukoreduced units (ARC Carolinas region) but prior to that we did the filters at bedside. At the time, we had it defined which patient populations would receive LR but I can't remember which now. Later, we looked at other suppliers that had both products available but our medical director thought that universal leukoreduction was an improvement in service and going back to units that weren't pre-storage leukoreduced would be a step back. It has made I think a huge difference in the # of febrile reactions.

I found a ton of flow charts on the TraQ website today. They are disguised as "job aids." They are great but don't seem to combine multiple SOPs. Still a good resource.

Welcome Jamie. I second that there are people with tons of experience on here with a passion for blood banking. I have learned so many things on here and have gotten advice or ideas so many times.

I have done both- used an outside company and performed it myself. For our implementation of Sunquest several years ago, we hired an outside company to perform all the vendor scripts- basically making sure the system did everything Sunquest said it would. I then performed a validation of every procedure the way I wrote it for the computer system to make sure it would work as we expected it to. Future upgrade validations were not usually so time consuming so I did those myself. I agree with David- if you do it yourself, it will help you understand how it works better and will let you know that it all works as it should.

Is everyone using the complement control cells: TRM.40210 DAT Phase II When performing an antiglobulin test with anti-C3 antiglobulin reagents, C3-coated red blood cells are used as a control in all negative antiglobulin tests. and where are you getting them from? I'm not happy with my current vendor (they don't come on a predictable standing order) and I just saw that Hemobioscience has them. Any experience with that vendor? Thanks!

If anyone is able to share their flow charts here, I'd love to see them. Sometimes, it seems like getting started on something so daunting isn't as hard if you can get ideas from someone else. Thanks! Jane

I used Sunquest (a few years ago) and I thought for all discrepancies you could set what level of user could override it or maybe if it can be overridden. This may require a maintenance change that you or someone at your facility should be able to make.

Hi All, I am back to the Blood Bank after a 5 year hiatus (and so glad to be back ). In the new facility I'm at, we have a copy of Lucia Berte's 2007 Transfusion Service Manual of SOPs, Training Guides, and Competence Assessment Tools. Has anyone else read this book? I'm really liking the way she advises organizing a procedure manual- really with flow charts that describe your processes. For example, you'd have a flow chart for a type and screen, another for antibody ID, etc. I'm thinking this approach may help the generalists (everyone that works in blood bank except me) find what they need quickly. Does anyone set their manuals up like this? Any thoughts? Ideas? Thanks, Jane

Hi All, I used to be fairly active on this forum until I left the Blood Bank in 2007. I'm now happy to be at a new facility as the Blood Bank Technical Specialist and so happy to be back in the Blood Bank where I belong. I look forward to contributing and learning more from everyone's experience! Jane

Bob, Your posts will be missed both for your insight and for your wit! Thanks for all you've given, Jane

Our policy is that anytime a reference tech has to be called in (night or weekend) we get the approval of our pathologist. This keeps us from having to "eat" all these excess charges when patients do not really warrant this and also keeps the pathologist in the loop.